


(And the rock cried out) No Hiding Place

by Lozza



Category: Hawaii Five-0 (2010)
Genre: Angst, M/M, enemy of my enemy, kidnap
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-29
Updated: 2012-08-05
Packaged: 2017-11-02 16:35:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 9
Words: 40,317
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/371116
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lozza/pseuds/Lozza
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>After Joe White continually causes Steve emotional pain, Danny gets desperate and takes matters into his own hands.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The delivery

**Author's Note:**

> This has come out of watching 2.13 (that's what we're up to in the UK). I really don't like Joe White, I'm kind of liking Adam Noshimuri (he's hot after all). Danny maybe a bit out of character in this one, but I think he might be persuaded to do something like this, Steve is his lobster after all.   
> It's going to be slash in later chapters.
> 
> The title has come from an episode of Babylon 5, one of my other fave things.

Danny couldn’t believe where he was right at that moment, at all, or what he was doing. He was in his car, parked momentarily outside Adam Noshimuri’s house beyond the gates, contemplating something he didn’t think even Steve at his worst could do. 

But he had already committed assault and kidnapping, as well as illegal imprisonment, and even as he thought about it the object of his introspection shifted in the back seat, and he had to do something. 

He knew he was in view of the CCTV cameras surrounding the house, so was not surprised when he drove the car slowly forward the gates opened in front of him and he was allowed entry. 

Noshimuri himself was standing, waiting for him by the main front doors of the house, flanked by a couple of heavies, and Danny pulled up beside them, turned off the ignition before he got out, leaving the car unlocked. He nodded at the Yakuza boss, who gave him a nod back and out his hand up to stop the two with him from approaching and grabbing the other man. “What can I do for you, Detective?” he asked him politely, curiously. “Something, I know. You were waiting for a while.”

Danny nodded again and looked away for a moment before he spoke. “I’ve spent all of my working life fighting organisations likes yours,” he stated bleakly. “And I was pretty good too.”

Adam nodded too – he had done his research and knew it was not an exaggerated boast. 

“So,” Danny continued, having to finish since he’d started. “What I’m doing here is totally against everything I have ever done.” With that he stepped back and showed them the contents of his car. 

Noshimuri and the other two men stepped forward and saw what he was talking about. Stuffed into the back seat of Danny’s Camaro, very uncomfortably, was a body, hands zip-cuffed tight behind it’s back, ankles too, a large burlap sack pulled over the person’s head and shoulders. It was a man by the looks of it, just about awake from the slow movements it was making, and Adam looked up and frowned at Danny. “Who is that?” he asked him curiously. “And why did you bring him here?”

“Because he’s an asshole and I can’t let him continue doing what he is.” Danny answered the second question first. “He won’t talk to me, McGarrett or the others, whatever we try, and I know he’s in this deep. I thought you could get something out of him.”

Adam’s frown deepened and he stepped close to the car again. “May I?’ he asked him, and when Danny nodded reached in over the passenger seat and pulled off the burlap sack. 

He stared at the man revealed and smiled. “Well, well. Commander Joe White.” he greeted the former SEAL, who looked balefully up at him. “How nice to see you again. Boys, get him out of there,” he ordered. He then took one of Danny’s elbows in a gentle hold and pulled him away so they could talk while the two guys struggled with White’s heavy form. “If this is some sort of trap, Detective, it’s not very subtle. And my lawyers will be all over it.”

Danny shook his head and glanced over his shoulder as he heard one of the guys swear. The back of his car was not built for people lying in it, especially ones that did not want to get out, but no way in hell was he going to leave someone like Joe White in the trunk with the arsenal of Steve’s toys at his disposal. “He keeps telling us he’s trying to protect Steve from the crap around his Dad, but all he’s doing is causing more grief. He’s protecting something, but it’s definitely not Steve.”

Adam looked over his shoulder and watched thoughtfully as White was literally dragged out of the car. He needed to know what that man had done to his father, but McGarrett had pulled him out before they had gotten anywhere. “McGarrett doesn’t know you’ve brought him here?” he asked Danny cautiously.  
Danny shook his head. “What called him earlier and told him he was leaving Hawaii, so he thinks he’s gone,” he answered. “I left and grabbed him before he could get very far.”

Adam looked the shorter Detective up and down and then turned back to study White. His people had managed to get him out of the car and onto the driveway, where the guy was on his knees, glaring at Danny. “If looks could kill,” he murmured, and turned back to face Danny. “How the hell did you get him?” he asked him incredulously. “It took three of my guys last time. And how did you get him into the car?”

Danny smiled at him, no way was he going to tell him he had ‘borrowed’ Kamekona and a cousin of his to do it, he didn’t need the big guy in trouble because of him. “Ways and means,” he answered him cryptically instead. He paused, sighed and looked up at him after a few moments. “I’m still a cop,” he reminded Adam, the Yakuza boss. “I need to ask you not to kill him, or maim him.”

Adam nodded thoughtfully and watched White as he did so. The guy had been impervious to the beating they had inflicted on him. “I can source…” he started, but Danny lifted his free hand and shook his head to stop him. 

“Don’t tell me,” he said firmly, cutting him off. “Please. This is difficult enough as it is.”

Adam looked at him and really studied him. The cop was looking anywhere but at White, even though he must know the guy was glaring holes in his back. He could lose everything because of this, Adam realised, the cop was giving him his career and freedom on a platter, and for what? “McGarrett means this much to you?” he asked Danny, lowering his voice to keep it between themselves. “There are cameras all over here, recording all of this. You could lose…”

“I know…” Danny answered grimly and looked up at him, eyes piercing blue straight into his. “What I could lose. But yes, he does mean that much to me.” He kept Adam’s gaze for a few moments before looking away again which was enough for Noshimuri to know, if he tried anything with McGarrett, Williams would be on his back. If he could hand over a supposed ally to an enemy, then Adam knew whatever Danny did to him wasn’t going to be pretty.  
And, he admitted to himself as he glanced back over at White, if someone cared as much for him as Danny obviously did for Steve McGarrett, then he would be rich indeed. “You have my word we’ll not kill or maim him, Detective,” he assured him. “And I’ll make sure this will be deleted from the CCTV. I will also let you know what information we get from him, and when we let him go.”

Danny nodded, suddenly insanely grateful to the guy. “Thank you, Mister Noshimuri.” he said gratefully. “You really have no idea how…”

Adam shook his head. “I do,” he interrupted. “And it’s Doctor, I’m an orthopaedic surgeon. Call me Adam, after this I think we can be less formal.”

Danny nodded and smiled wryly at him. “Danny,” he agreed. “But I’m just a detective, just a cop.”

Adam looked over his shoulder at the others again. White was still on the ground, sitting now, not kneeling, but still glaring murderously at them both, but probably more at Danny. “No, Danny,” he assured him. “You are so much more than that.” It was obvious Danny didn’t believe him, and Adam knew this wasn’t going to help him. Using the hand he still had on Danny’s elbow he lead him back to his car, but he called to the other two guys first. “Get him in the house,” he ordered them, and waited for the pair to do so. 

They grabbed White by the arms and lifted him to his feet, and shoved him towards the house.  
“This isn’t going to help McGarrett!” the guy shouted at Danny as he was forced forward. “And I’m going to fucking kill you for this, Williams!”

“Bigger, better and stronger have threatened that, White!” Danny shouted back. “Bite me!”

Then White was through the doors into the house, and was gone. 

Danny turned back to Adam to find him grinning at him. “If you ever want a job, Danny,” he offered him, amused. “I’m sure I can find you one.”

The Detective smiled and walked back to his car, climbing in when Adam let him go before he said anything. “I’m too sarcastic to be a comedian,” he retorted him through his still open window. 

Adam nodded and walked a little close. “So I’ve heard,” he agreed and waited for him to ignite the Camaro’s large engine, listening to its throaty grumble. “What are you going to tell McGarrett?” he asked him after a few moments. 

Danny turned away from him to stare out of his windshield for some moments before he answered. “I don’t know.” he answered him truthfully, but then realised something. He quickly reached into the side pocket of his car door and pulled out a business card that he handed Adam. “Call me if you get anything.” he reminded him. 

Adam took it and nodded. “I will,” he promised, and stepped back and watched as Danny nodded. The Detective expertly slid the car into gear and drove away without another word, slowly round the circular driveway and out of the gates. Adam watched him as he paused the car at the street, looked either way, turned left and disappeared out of view. 

Adam stood for a few moments, watching as his gates closed again, and shook his head ruefully. Who knew? he thought to himself as he turned and walked back into his house. Everyone thought it was McGarrett they needed to be wary of, that Williams was his effective back up and followed his orders. But now Adam knew he and everyone else on his side of the fence had been wrong: Detective Williams was a deep well, and because of that he was much more worrisome than they gave him credit for. Much more worrisome.


	2. The Conspiracy

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny gets some help

And the rock cried out part 2

The conspiracy

2 days before…

Chin, despite his reputation and Zen-like calm, felt anything but when he watched Joe White leave their bull pen. Yes, Steve had dismissed him, but the elder SEAL still watched the younger one with an odd expression on his face as Steve and Danny left the office. 

Something had to be done about the older guy before he dragged Steve down with him, and from the expression on Danny’s face when the pair of Navy men had walked back into the offices showed Chin he wasn’t happy about it either. 

So the Lieutenant waited until they had closed the case and everyone had gone their separate ways before he made his move. The hotel Danny was staying at wasn’t far, Chin was pleased to see the Camaro parked outside it, and he parked his still damaged SUV near it, and quickly went inside to find his friend.   
It looked like Danny had just stepped out of the shower when he opened his door to Chin’s knock. He was damp, dressed in a fluffy robe, and he smiled in greeting at Chin and stepped back, opening the door fully for him. “Hey, Chin.” he said as his colleague walked in. “You got me just out of the shower. What can I do for you?”

Chin stepped in and firmly shut the door behind him, looking around the suite. “Is McGarrett here?” he asked him quickly. “White?” When Danny shook his head he relaxed a bit and ushered the blond further into the suite and shut the door behind him. “I don’t trust White,” he told Danny firmly. “Has he been here long enough to plant bugs?”

Danny frowned and shook his head. “I don’t trust him either,” he agreed, and walked back to where he had dropped his towel when he had heard the knock on his door. “But bugs? Really?”

Chin nodded and Danny rubbed his hair with the towel while he thought about it. “He’s not been in here, anywhere, on his own,” he answered him. “Just when we were being fitted for your wedding, and then just momentarily. How is that going, by the way? Good?”

The smile Chin gave him lit up his face and eyes and he nodded. “Brilliant,” he answered him. “Best thing I ever did. I know you’re going to tell me it won’t last, but…”

Danny shook his head and smiled wryly. “My parents will be married for forty three years in a couple of months.” he told him and waved him into one of the easy chairs. “They still like to embarrass their kids with PDA.” He walked over to the minibar and grabbed a couple of Longboards from it, handing one over to his friend before he sat next to him on the couch. “What are we gonna do about White?” he asked as he passed over the bottle opener he’d kept on the coffee table. “Steve’s trying to hide it but it’s obvious it’s bothering him.” He shook his head and flipped open his own beer. “What with him, Wo Fat and Jenna, it’s no wonder he’s not sleeping or eating well.”

Chin nodded, of course Danny would have noticed. “I don’t suppose he’s spoken to you about it?” he asked. 

Danny nodded. “After a fashion,” he replied. “He tells me about White, what he’s said, done. But not about nightmares and stuff,” he added grimly. “Those I’ve found out by myself.”

Chin decided not to go there, at the moment anyway – despite his perchance for verbal diarrhoea Danny could be very reticent when he wanted to be. “The Yakuza have already come at White,” he informed him. “They damaged my car when I went to pick him up from the airport.”

“And HPD pulled him in for questioning today as well,” Danny added. “With both the Yakuza and HPD gunning for him, Steve’s going to get caught in the middle. I can’t let that happen, whatever Steve feels about the guy.”

Chin nodded and took a mouthful of beer while he thought about it. “Where’s Steve now?” he asked him after a few moments. “Did he tell you?”

“He said he was going to talk to Joe,” Danny answered him grimly. “Said that he was gonna try and get some more information out of him.”

“Do you think that’ll work?” Chin queried and smiled grimly too when Danny snorted in derision. 

“White is even more stubborn than SuperSEAL.” he retorted. “I didn’t think it was possible, but it is. Maybe they both got taught stubbornness in the SEALs?”

Chin smiled. “But you can out-stubborn them both,” he stated, and smiled wider when Danny looked at him over his beer bottle and mouthed ‘out-stubborn’.

“I’m taking that as a compliment,” the Jersey native informed him. “White’s been telling Steve he’s trying to protect him,” he added after some thought. “But the only person I can see him protecting is himself. We lost Jenna over this,” he said quietly. “And Steve? Well, we know what happened to him.”

Chin reached for him and laid a hand on his nearest arm. He knew Danny had been affected by Korea more than he had let on, he had stayed with Steve after his rescue, making sure he slept on the plane and then that he stayed in hospital for the full amount of time when they got home. It wasn’t easy for Chin to see the Commander in such a mess; he couldn’t comprehend what it had been like for Danny. Steve wasn’t the only one of the pair to look like he’d not been eating properly or sleeping well. “So it’s down to us to make sure Steve doesn’t get caught in Joe White’s mess,” he told him firmly when Danny turned to face him. 

“Hmm.” Danny agreed, sort of, and drank some more beer. “So, basically you’re saying we need to do something drastic to a man Steve classes as a surrogate father,” he clarified darkly. 

Chin nodded slowly. “And probably illegal too.” he added, just to compound Danny’s woe. 

Danny signed. “If Joe doesn’t kill us, Steve will.”

Chin really couldn’t disagree with his depressing statement, which was one reason why he had come to Danny in the first place. “Rock and a hard place, Brah,” he agreed bleakly. 

 

Both men were on their second beers, pizza ordered from room service, Danny’s laptop out in front of Chin, the other detective drawing out what he was trying to explain to Chin on a paper notepad in front of them, when a loud banging on the suite door surprised them both. 

Danny, now dressed in some loose track pants and a t shirt shoved the notepad at his companion and stood. “It’s probably Steve,” he cautioned him, and Chin quickly shoved the pad under the seat cushion he was using and turned to the laptop as Danny quickly walked over to the door. Indeed it was, Danny could see Steve through the peephole in the door. “Holy …” he murmured, and quickly opened the door to him. One look at his ninja attire and mobile face made the detective quickly grab his arm and pull him into the suite. “Steve!” he said firmly as he shut the door behind him, and shoved the security chain on for good measure. “What the hell happened? Are you all right?”

Steve didn’t answer right away, he couldn’t, he was so angry and hurt by Joe White’s actions and words he was virtually speechless. He had just gone and rescued the asshole only to have him walk away, saying nothing, again, and he was so … disturbed that the only thing he could do was this, go find someone he knew wouldn’t betray him. 

Danny welcomed him with a demand about his welfare, a call over to Chin (who the Commander hadn’t known was there), and some comforting, calming, patented Williams mother-henning. “Steve?” Danny called again to him when he didn’t get an answer the first time. “Are you all right? Where have you been?”

“… Joe …” the Commander murmured, his voice hoarse, so he swallowed some saliva and tried again. “Yakuza took Joe. I had to go and get him back,” he explained. 

He missed the look Chin and Danny shared, but not the soft curse his partner growled out. “You went on your own,” Danny stated, rather than asked, he already knew the answer. With a sigh he gently pulled his partner over to a nearby armchair, checking for limps or any other injuries, and manoeuvred him into it. 

Steve was compliant in his shock, and he let his partner relive him of his vest and weapons, handing them off quickly to Chin while he used his hands and eyes to check Steve was okay. He had no injuries, he was fine, and all Danny needed to do was get some information from him. 

Danny crouched in front of him and tapped his knee to get his attention. “Steve, talk to me Babe. What happened?”

Steve took a deep breath and looked down at him. “Joe got caught by Adam Noshimuri.” he explained, calming down as he did so. “I got him out. But he wouldn’t tell me anything. He’s not telling me anything!” he shouted, calm evaporating. He banged his fist on the arm of the chair and was going to leap up again and pace the room, but Danny’s hand on his knee stopped him. 

“Back up,” Danny said after another look at Chin. “You went, on your own, to Adam Noshimuri’s house?” he queried, trying really hard not to lose it. “To rescue a guy that’s caused nothing but stress, trouble and aggravation?”

Steve took note of his words and tone and looked at him. “He’s my friend,” he replied, as if that was enough of a reason. 

“You went on your own,” Danny forced out through clenched teeth. “How many times do I need to tell you? You are part of a team. Why don’t you realise that?”

Steve had the good grace to look away for a moment before he shrugged again. “I needed to go in a hurry,” he explained. “And you and Chin don’t trust Joe.”

Danny shoved himself to his feet and stalked away, hands in the air. “Damn straight!” he snapped at his partner. “But did you really think I would want you to go into the Yakuza’s den on your own just because of that? What is wrong with you?” He turned round and stalked back over. “Why don’t you understand this, Steve? After eighteen months you still think you’re in this on your own?” He shook his head and looked down at his feet before he spoke again. “I don’t trust Joe White,” he told him, changing the subject. “He’s lying to you. You keep telling me he’s saying he’s trying to protect you, but it seems that he’s only protecting himself,” he snapped. “Why is that? Do you know?” He glared at Steve, who looked right back at him and shook his head. 

“No, I don’t,” Steve answered him truthfully, and didn’t hide anything from him. He couldn’t anyway, Danny could read him like a book, but at the moment his best friend and partner was an enigma to him. He studied Danny for a moment and then glanced at Chin, noted he was standing nearby, arms folded across his chest, watching them both. “What are you two up to?” he asked them, frowning now. He sat up straight when Danny looked at him with a matching frown. “Danny? Chin? What?”

Danny stepped closer to him, arms held wide in an open gesture, making his partner’s frown deepened in confused curiosity. “You know I love you, right? Steve?” he asked him firmly, and waited for the SEAL to nod. “You know Chin and Kono do too.” he stated, and glanced over at the other guy to see him nod. “So you know we’re your back up? Right?”

Now Steve knew something was definitely going on and from Danny’s words and Chin’s stance he knew he wasn’t going to like it. He stood quickly and got into Danny’s space, looming over him. “Joe White had been in my life for all of it, Williams,” he said to him, almost snarled. “A lot more time than you.”

Steve had seemed to forget that the man in front of him wasn’t easily intimidated, or what had happened the first (and last) time he had tried such a manoeuvre. But Danny hadn’t. He laughed up at him, which was not what Steve had wanted or expected. “Do you want me to punch you again, Steve?” he asked him, amused. “I can do that, if you like.”

Steve took in a deep breath and calmed himself; he didn’t want to get punched again. “Just tell me what you’re plotting, Danny,” he ordered instead. 

“I need to get the information White is hiding,” Danny told him with a nod. “Because at the moment I can’t tell whether he’s working with us, with Wo Fat, for himself, or some third party we don’t yet know about.” He looked at his friend, straight into his eyes. “He’s not telling you, he’s definitely not going to me, Chin or Kono. So…” he paused, but knew, if he wanted to keep any sort of relationship with the guy in front of him, he needed to be completely honest with him, something Joe White was not. “So we’re trying to come up with something, anything, to get him to talk.”

Steve’s frown turned into a scowl and he glared down at Danny before he looked over at Chin. “You in on this too?” he demanded, and shook his head when Chin nodded. “Joe is a SEAL.” Steve reminded them both, his words clipped. “Adam Noshimuri found that out earlier. Whatever you two come up with won’t work either.”

It wasn’t a boast, or bravado, and the other two knew it. “Then do you suggest, Steve?” Chin asked, stepping forward too. “We ask him? Because that hasn’t worked, even for you. Has it?”

Steve deflated a little and shook his head. He was right, it hadn’t, and Joe had just clammed up and walked away. “The only thing he’s told me is he helped Hiro Noshimuri escape to Japan.” he admitted, and couldn’t look at Danny’s shocked expression. 

“He did what?!” Danny demanded loudly, incredulously. “Hiro Noshimuri killed your mother, Steve! How is that protecting you?!”

The SEAL could understand his shock and anger, he felt the same when Joe had told him, which was even now settling as a deep hurt in his soul. “I don’t know, Danny,” he agreed and walked away from him, unfolding his arms as he headed for the closed balcony doors. Danny’s suite was lovely, he had won a fortnight, and then paid for another fortnight, so had another ten days or so before he had to make decisions about his accommodation woes. Steve liked it here, the balcony was large and breezy, and the view from here and the bedroom was of the sea, which always calmed him, wherever he was in the world. 

Except maybe tonight. Joe had been a large part of his life for a long time, had been ‘Uncle Joe’ when he was a kid, had watched over him when he was going through training and then when he was on active service. It was partly Joe’s encouragement that had made him apply for the SEALs, and also because young Steve had through if he was more like him, how own father would give him as much attention as he gave Joe. He trusted the elder SEAL implicitly; well he had, until now. He had been the most consistent person in his life for a long time. 

Until Danny had come into his life. Steve knew he had actually grabbed the guy and pulled him into his own world, not that he was ever going to admit that to him, but the Commander knew he was a better man because of it, because of Danny. Hell, the short blond had given up everything for him, the chance he had to have a family again to save his butt when he had gone on another crusade on his own. 

Danny had never done anything to betray him, he had backed him up, protected him, given him everything from the use of his car to the fantastic status of ‘Uncle Steve’, something he could never, ever repay him for. The least he could do, he thought to himself as he saw his friend simply watch him in the reflection of the windows in front of him was hear him out. He was right after all – how could freeing the guy that had Steve’s mother killed be protecting him. “All right,” he said finally and turned back to face Danny and Chin. “But I reserve the right to veto, Joe isn’t some bought juror.”

Danny nodded and his shoulders released their tension. “Okay,” he said, his tone showing his relief. “We can plan over dinner. I don’t suppose you’ve eaten, have you?” he asked his partner pointedly. “You’re still looking a bit on the skinny side.”

 

In the end it was Chin that had simply said “Adam Noshimuri” to them when the three had eaten – Danny making sure his partner ate most of the spicy chicken and rice Steve had ordered with gentle, teasing persuasion. 

Steve put down the beer he had been drinking and looked over at the other Hawaiian with a frown. The trio had swapped seats, now he and Danny were on the sofa and Chin in the armchair, Danny’s laptop and notebook on the coffee table in front of them. “I just got him away from there.” Steve reminded him, wondering what he was thinking (just like most of the time with Chin). 

“Yeah, Chin. What are you getting at?” Danny asked him. He was sitting close to Steve, as usual SuperSEAL had gotten into his personal space and stayed there, which relieved the shorter man no end – he had not forgotten who they were talking, planning, plotting over. So he put down his own beer and laid that hand on Steve’s knee to comfort and keep him down in necessary, to give Chin at least a few moments head start. 

“I know that,” Chin replied gently, keeping his tone easy and calm – he had spotted Steve’s sudden tenseness and wasn’t stupid. “But I also know that he’s got a lot invested in this too, he wants to find out what happened to his Dad.”

Steve looked down at the table, away from the two other men, and thought about it. “He had a couple of guys beating Joe,” he explained to them both bleakly. “I can’t condone that, I know exactly how that feels.”

“We’re not going to condone that,” Danny assured him, and gently rubbed his though where he laid his hand. “And Joe’s had the same training as you, so that won’t work.”

“Hmmph,” Steve grumbled and grabbed his beer again for some more. “There’s not enough training on the planet that gets you prepared for that.”

Danny huffed this time and squeezed his thigh. “I hate that you’ve had to find that out.”

Steve looked at him and his face softened to a fond expression. “Me too,” he murmured and leaned into him for some support. 

“So do I,” Chin joined in, he did feel the same. “So what are we going to do about Joe?” he prompted, trying to get them both back on track. Danny had a knack of getting Steve to give more information about his past than the SEAL wanted to give, but he felt that they didn’t have the time for that to happen now. 

“What were you thinking about Adam?” Danny asked him curiously as he pulled himself away from Steve’s face. “He’s kept his nose clean, he’s not like his father or uncle it seems.”

Chin nodded. “He’s clean,” he assured them both. “He’s spent most of his adult life training and being a doctor. He had a thriving practice at HMC,” he told them, remembering from his research on the guy. “The only illegal thing he’s done is grabbing Joe,” he added, glancing meaningfully at Steve. 

“And he had plenty reasons for that,” Danny commented darkly. He turned to face Steve when he felt him tense against him. “You look exhausted, Steve,” he deflected. “Why don’t you go have a shower and go to bed? Chin and I won’t do anything without your okay, but you need to rest and let us plan.”

A shower was a good idea, and the one here would massage Steve’s anger away, he knew, but he wanted to be involved in whatever they were planning. “You promise?” he asked him, and hoped Danny and Chin would excuse his sudden regression into kidhood. 

They both nodded, and Steve found himself nodding too. “Okay,” he agreed, and put down his bottle. “I’ll take you up on that.” He pushed himself up and walked slowing to the bedroom, pulling the door to but not closed behind him. He understood where the two were coming from, he knew if it were Danny in the situation he found himself in he would try and do something about it, it was his protective nature, but … this was Uncle Joe, someone his father had told him to always trust. 

But then again he thought to himself as he stripped, why Joe was being so reticent sent his hackles sky high, as well as his blood pressure, and he found himself trusting the two in the other room more than he did Uncle Joe. 

 

Danny waited until he heard the shower turn on before he walked over to the bedroom door and shut it properly, and then turned back to Chin. “What’s going on in your head, Chin Ho?” he asked him as he walked back over. “Adam Noshimuri?”

Chin nodded and indicated to the file on Danny’s laptop. “Give him back,” he suggested simply. 

It took a few moments for Danny’s brain to compute that one and he stared at Chin in surprised confusion. “Give him back.” he parroted and blinked when his friend nodded. 

“With a couple of caveats.” Chin continued, warming to the idea. “Adam’s a doctor, he’s not full-blooded Yakuza, like Hiro was. He just wants to know what happened to him, same as Steve with his father. If we could supply him with some… I don’t know,” he paused with a shrug. ”Truth drug the man hasn’t been trained to withstand, then maybe we could both get something out of him…”

Danny sat down heavily and looked down at his hands. On one hand was the very real possibility Steve would walk away from him, ditch him as a friend and never speak to him again, but on the other? On the other hand was information that could ease the pain in Steve’s eyes, stop him or at least reduce his need to blame himself for everything, finally get him some closure, and could lead them to Wo Fat and get a dangerous criminal off the streets. He sighed and murmured: “the good of the many” (Max the Trekkie was rubbing off on him) and looked up again. “Okay,” he agreed and sat up straight. “How are we going to do this? The guy’s a SEAL, it’s going to take more than just me to subdue him.”

Chin smiled and looked him up and down. “I don’t know about that,” he commented and pulled out the notepad. “I’ve seen you take down people bigger and better armed,”

Danny grinned at him. “I do have more than just my winning personality.” he agreed, and after a shared chuckle, they got down to business.


	3. The Plot

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Danny grabs Joe and not in a good way

Part 3 The Plot

(1 day before)

The sun rose bright and early the next day as it normally did on this sunbaked lump of pumice and it woke Danny with it. He hadn’t slept well, dreaming of shapeless people, faces, all leading Steve away from him, leaving him alone on a sandbar somewhere. The last person stepping in front him, pushing Steve down a dark path, had been a grinning Joe White who’s face morphed quickly into Wo Fat’s and Danny had started awake. 

Chin had left quite late the previous evening and Danny had pottered around a bit in the living room before he had grown a pair and slipped into the bedroom. Steve hadn’t returned to the conversation after his shower, and his partner was half expecting him to have made an escape out of the balcony but he hadn’t. Instead, also to Danny’s surprise, he was sprawled out on the massive bed, arms around a pillow, fast asleep. He was loathe to wake him, sleep for Steve was elusive at best at the moment, so Danny had slipped into bed beside him and left him alone, it wouldn't be the first time they had slept in the same bed. Even here, Steve had left some clothes and toiletries for just such a situation.

Surprisingly enough Steve had slept properly, calmly all night, he was sill there now, and when Danny turned to look at him he was pleased to see that his partner hadn’t even moved during the night. 

At least one of them slept properly, Danny huffed to himself, and decided he wasn’t going to get any more sleep. With another huff he slipped out of bed, getting a grumble from Steve but he didn’t wake, so that was a bonus. Danny wasn’t in the mood to sit and watch him sleep though, so he scribbled him a note, dressed in his running gear, grabbed his phone and left the suite. 

Where Steve used swimming miles in the ocean to clear his mind, Danny did the same with running, and this early in the morning the heat was bearable, there was hardly anyone around and he could go where his feet would take him. 

It also gave him time to have second, hell, twenty second thoughts about what they were planning, but, by the time he’d made his way back to the hotel, he was over that. He and Chin were committed, they had worked out a strategy the night before, and now all they had to do was implement it. 

 

When he returned Steve was awake, sipping from a glass of juice he had liberated from the mini fridge, and he looked Danny up and down when he walked in. “Good run?” he asked him, looking at him over the glass with a closed expression. 

Danny studied him for a moment and nodded, and then walked passed him towards the bathroom. “Have you ordered breakfast?” he asked him as he sat down and pulled off his sneakers. 

Steve followed him into the bedroom and looked down at him. “Are you going to tell me what you two have planned?” he asked him bluntly. 

Danny looked up and him and shook his head. “Let me shower first,” he asked, and quickly stood and ducked into the bathroom. Steve was too late to get there before the lock engaged and he banged his fist on the door. “You can’t stay there all day!” he shouted through the door.

“Go have a swim!” Danny replied, and cursed himself for the avoidance tactics. He had promised the man a veto after all, so he had to explain and he had volunteered, but he needed a shower first, and it wouldn’t hurt Steve to wait – he was always calmer after a swim anyway. 

Steve however, was a stubborn man, and he simply ordered breakfast for them both from room service and waited him out back on the couch. He glared up at him when his partner re-emerged and pointed at him savagely. “Tell me,” he snapped an order.

Danny sighed and stood in front of him. “We were going to give him back to Adam Noshimuri,” he told him after a few moments of staring at each other. “With a couple of restrictions.” he added quickly.

Steve gaped at him in shock for a few moments before he could respond. “Say that again,” he said quietly, and Danny wondered whether he should run right about now. 

But he held his ground and nodded to himself. “We’re going to give him back,” he said again, enunciating properly so his partner heard. “He’s not…”

Steve cut him off and leapt to his feet. “What the fuck?” he demanded and stalked over to him. “They will kill him!”

“How do you know?” Danny asked him, keeping his voice calm, with difficulty. “Steve? Do you know that?”

“Yes!” Steve replied and glared down at him again. “Why don’t you, Danny? Why would you even think that’s a valid plan? Or that I’d let you?”

“Because Adam is not a killer,” Danny answered him, his voice steady, almost as if he was trying to talk down an armed perp. “He needs information from White the same as us, and he’s not a stupid man,” he added. He readied himself for a punch with his next words. “Adam isn’t going to do anything like that to him, Steve,” he stated. “White isn’t worth it, and he knows that.”

Steve had a longer fuse than his partner, he could count the times he’d been livid in the last two years on one hand and never at Danny. Apart from now. “Not worth it?” he hissed in fury and clenched a fist, ready and able to smash it against his partner’s face. “How…?”

“Easily,” Danny answered him, reading his expression correctly. “I called him to help you, and help me get you out of prison. But all he’s done is cause you, and us, problems. You got out of prison on your own, Chin and I found the proof that cleared you, Kono tracked Wo Fat and shot the terrorist he was dealing with,” he listed. “What did White do?” He was using his negotiator tone and it seemed to be working. 

Steve deflated minutely – that he knew was true. “He got me out of Korea.” he stated, and was not surprised at his next statement.

“He didn’t do it alone, Steve,” Danny reminded him. “We wouldn’t let him go alone because he would have failed, and you are our ohana, you are my partner,” he emphasized. “My best friend. I would have gone on my own if I had to.”

Steve unclenched his fist and took in a calming breath. “I know,” he replied eventually and relaxed. “But I can’t let this go ahead without some assurances.”  
“I know,” Danny assured him, and relaxed some too. “And Chin’s on that. Seems he had some relatives who aren’t in the family business,” he explained. “As soon as he’s got more details we’ll reconvene. Okay?”

Steve didn’t like it, at all, but he could see Danny’s points, and he knew what he had said was true – Danny would have gone after him on his own. He didn’t know if Joe would have gone to Korea on his own, and that if nothing else, persuaded him Danny really was looking out for his best interests. “All right,” he agreed and nodded. “I ordered you some eggs,” he told him after some moments. “Tell me the rest at work.” he stated, not quite a demand, but Danny wasn’t going to argue with him.

The cop nodded and went to the fridge for his own juice, knowing he had actually gotten off lightly. He didn’t know what had gone through Steve’s brain that changed his mind, but he was grateful he hadn’t ended up a bloodied pulp; his partner wouldn’t have forgiven himself if he had hurt him, and Danny couldn’t have that. So he sat down with him when their breakfast arrived, talked about other things, and made sure his partner ate all of the food Steve had ordered for himself, steering him away from anything Joe White, Yakuza or Wo Fat. The Commander let him, he found Danny’s fussing soothing, and he ended up doing as he was told, eating all of his meal and a couple of extra slices of toast while Danny finished off his own second cup of coffee. He wasn’t really looking forward to work, but he still had the option to veto, and he knew if he pulled that card, Danny would respect it. At least he knew that, he thought to himself as he poured his own second cup of coffee from the carafe – he knew Danny respected him, he knew he trusted him. Danny hadn’t failed him yet, he was always where Steve needed him, and he knew the other guy wasn’t about to start. 

It was going to be difficult, Steve knew as he showered, to stand by on the sidelines on this one but he also knew that he would most likely get in the way. So when he was done, he dressed quickly, forewent a swim, and drove them both to work, in Danny’s car, smiling at his half-hearted protests about it. Then listened to Chin’s reassurances and then left them to plot and plan in Danny’s office, deciding he didn’t want to know the ins and outs. And Danny had already told him he wasn’t going to go into details, mainly for Steve’s own plausible deniability. 

Danny watched him go and turned back to Chin. “Okay,” he said, all business. “How are we actually going to do this?” he asked, getting smile in reply.   
“We get some help,” Chin answered him simply. “And I’ve got just the person in mind.”

 

All in all it went quite well. Danny left the office on a lunch run and took a detour to Kamekona’s. As usual the affable giant was pleased to see him. “Hey, Brah,” he greeted him when he spotted the detective from behind the queue of people. “Howzit?”

“Fine, Kame, fine,” Danny replied, and noted the glares he was getting from the customers. “I need to talk to you, but I’ll wait. Is that okay?”

Kamekona frowned at him, normally the little haole walked straight over, but not today. This might be something different. “Okay,” he agreed and served everyone before he turned back to his friend. Only to see him bussing a table and chucking the stuff in the nearby trash cans. “Hey, haole.” he said to him as he walked over. “What’s happening? Not paying you for this.” he added, waving at the table he’d just cleared. 

Danny smiled. “I need your help,” he explained to him and urged him over to a quiet area. “Joe White maybe working for the other side.” he said, knowing the man would understand. “I’ve got somewhere lined up so we can get some information from him, but I can’t subdue him myself, brah. Can you help?”

Kame frowned at him as he thought about it. “Don’t know, brah,” he mused. “McGarrett’s kinda tight with the guy. Don’t want SuperSEAL coming after me.”

Danny shook his head. “Don’t worry, my friend,” he tried to assure him. “Steve knows some of what’s going on, and he’ll go after me, not you.”

“You sure?” Kamekona asked, and when Danny nodded he blew out a breath. “All right, bruddah,” he agreed albeit reluctantly. “What do you want me to do?”

 

White took the call the next day and frowned at his phone before he answered. “Danny,” he said in greeting. “You don’t normally call. Is Steve in trouble again?” 

“Sort of,” Danny answered him and tried not to sound too … off. Chin nodded from where he was listening – they had decided to do this in the Camaro rather than the office or anywhere else. “Look, we need to talk. Can I meet you at Kamekona’s shack? In about an hour?”

Joe looked around him; his rented apartment’s living room covered in files he had … appropriated from the 5-0 offices, including personnel files on all four main members, and sighed. “Is it an emergency?” he asked him. “I’m in the middle of something here.”

Danny and Chin shared a look. “Not really,” the detective replied. “But I do need to speak to you.”

“Okay,” Joe replied and looked at his laptop screen – he needed to weasel some more information from him anyway. “I can get there about seventeen hundred.”

“Great, see you there,” Danny agreed and disconnected the call. Then looked over at Chin. “Five pm,” he said to him, and his partner in crime nodded.

“I’m still not happy you won’t let me help,” the other man answered after a few moments. “I’m invested in this too.”

“I know, Chin,” Danny replied grimly. “But if this backfires I need you to back up Steve and make sure he’s okay. Please.”

“By letting you take all the flak?” Chin asked, his Zen façade faltering. “No, Danny. And I’m not arguing over it either. So, five pm at Kamekona’s,” he stated and dared the other detective to argue with him. 

Danny though, was relieved and he nodded. “Okay,” he agreed. “Okay.”

 

They turned up at Kame’s shack at 1630 hours after begging off from the office. Steve had stared at them both; he could imagine what was going on, but nodded when Danny asked him to meet him at the hotel later. “If I’m not there just use the key card,” the blond had told him as they left. Steve had nodded and watched them leave, and now Danny was pacing the area in front of the food shack in worried impatience. Chin was keeping out of sight with a cousin of Kamekona’s clan and he watched the area and Danny in turns, checking for White or anyone else that could cause them a problem. The Lieutenant really didn’t like leaving Danny out in the open with a potential enemy, but the man had insisted and here they were. 

But it took White until 5.20pm ish to turn up, walking towards the detective with an almost Steve-like smirk that riled Danny up even more when he noticed it. He looked meaningfully at his watch and then up at the older guy when Joe stood in front of him. “Did you get taught how to perfect that smirk in punctuality lessons at SEAL school?” he asked him sardonically. 

Joe nodded. “And I taught Steve all he knows.” he retorted. 

“Right,” was Danny’s terse reply. He found himself simply watching the guy for several seconds, but pulled himself out of it quickly. “I need to talk to you about Steve,” he told him before the pause became too tense. 

“I gathered that,” Joe replied. “Ask me, then feed me, and I’ll you what I can.”

Danny nodded and waved him to a table in front of the shack. It was testament to Joe’s lack of concern that he took the bench that left him with his back to the shack while Danny took the other side. “It must be important,” the elder SEAL commented as he settled. “I watched you for about fifteen minutes, you must have paced a mile.”

“Huh,” Danny answered him, momentarily panicked that he had seen Chin jog in from where he had dropped him but he calmed, reminding himself that that was unlikely. Chin had gotten out of the car at the last set of traffic lights and walked, just in case White had been waiting for him. “Why wait until now to get here then?” he asked. 

Joe shrugged. “No harm in surveying the area,” he explained. “What do you want to know, Danny?” he asked, changing the subject. “Why meet here?”

“It’s neutral territory,” Danny told him simply, and then got down to business. “I want to know everything about Shelbourn, everything you know about Jack McGarrett’s murder too,” he told him bluntly. “And I want to know where you get off lying to my best friend and telling him you’re doing it to protect him,” he added, his rising anger evident in his tone. 

Joe was surprised at his bluntness and his words, and he was sorely tempted to get up and walk away, but Steve hadn’t chosen the guy in front of him as his partner because of his hair, so he kept his seat for the time being, curious as to where he was going with this. “Where do I get off?” he repeated, an eyebrow raised. “I’m trying to stop it, Danny,” he replied, the same spiel he’d given Steve. “Can’t you see that?”

“All I can see is a guy causing a lot of trouble, but giving us nothing,” Danny retorted, clenching his fist under the table. Up until now he had been having second thoughts about their schemes, but with Joe’s continued prevarication he wasn’t any more. “All I see is my friend getting crapped on by someone he trusts and is supposed to be his friend,” he added. “But it looks to me that you don’t have Steve’s best interests at heart. I can’t figure out whether you’re just protecting yourself, or someone else.”

Joe hid his surprise well, but not well enough and Danny was adept at reading people. “So you are protecting someone else.” the detective mused, causing White no small amount of consternation. “Who? Hiro Noshimuri?” he queried. “But why help the guy that murdered your alleged friend’s wife?” he asked.

“I did it to stop the continuing circle of murders committed by Wo Fat, Danny,” White replied, his tone patronising. “Noshimuri is a liability to him now.”

Danny shrugged. “Lay down with dogs, get fleas,” he snapped at him. “Noshimuri knew what he was going, knew what he was getting involved in when he told his brother to plant a bomb in a car.”

Joe frowned and shook his head. “You don’t believe that,” he stated. “I know you don’t.”

He was right; he didn’t believe that, Noshimuri deserved to pay for his crimes but not by being murdered by Wo Fat. Danny suddenly remembered the state Steve’s nemesis had left Mokoto in several months ago now. “You’re right, I don’t,” he admitted. “But that doesn’t change the facts. You’re lying to Steve, and the bullshit you’re spinning everyone got old very quickly.”

Joe glared at him and shook his head. “I know you care a lot about him,” he stated grimly. “But you’ve got to realise I care about him too.”

“No, I don’t,” Danny replied antagonistically. “If you did care about him as much as you say you do, you’d tell him everything you know, not just half-truths and outright lies. And not blame him for the murder of an old man someone else carried out. You’re not acting like any sort of friend should.”

“And you are?” White demanded of him, becoming angrier at his tone and accusations. “Does he know you’re here?” He was surprised when Danny nodded and he didn’t see a hint of deception in the detective’s face or manner.

“Yes, he does,” Danny told him truthfully. “He knows I’m here, he knows why, and he knows what I’m here to speak to you about. That’s what real friends do, Joe,” he snapped. “They tell each other the truth. And answer questions. Something you don’t.”

Joe glared at him and wondered whether the short blond could move fast enough out of his way if he reached across the table with the aim of breaking his scrawny little neck. He had seen how quick he was able to move though, and that he was armed now, but whether he would actually shoot him if he tried anything Joe didn’t know. He’d probably arrest him, and the ex SEAL didn’t want to be locked up in 5-0’s interrogation cell for however long it would take Steve to calm his partner down and let him out. So he decided to take the perceived easy way out and placed his hands on the table, using them to push himself up to stand over the smaller man. “I’m not going to listen to any more of your crap, Williams,” he growled at him. “I have my reasons for keeping quiet, and whatever you believe I am trying to protect Steve.” With that he turned to walk away, back the way he came, but stopped with a frown when he stepped into a virtual wall of man. He looked up and frowned at the unknown man standing close to him, crowding him against the table. It wasn’t Kamekona, but this guy, darker skinned, dark hair pulled into a thin tail down over his shoulder and down the front of his chest, arms folded, reminded White of the giant Shrimp Cook and he looked round for him. Kamekona himself was standing next to the other guy, and he was not wearing his usual grin. “Danny?” Kame called. “D’is haole bothering you, brah?”

Joe turned back to see the detective, only to find him standing as well and walking towards him.

“Yeah, he is,” the man in question replied grimly and reached into one of his pockets for something. “I can’t let you carry on destroying my best friend, Joe,” he told him darkly as he slipped in the small gap Kame left for him between himself and the table. 

Joe spotted the Stun gun he held in his hand and tried to escape the man mountains. But he knew, even as he tried to step onto the bench he had been sitting on, the trio were too close and he was boxed in. He shoved, hard, at the guy in front of him, but when that had no effect he threw a fist in Danny’s direction, seeing him as the weak link. But Kamekona moved quicker than Joe gave him credit for and grabbed his wrist in a tight grip before that fist could connect with Danny’s throat. “You’re gonna pay for this, Williams!” he shouted, struggling in Kame’s grip.

“I know,” Danny answered him, and pressed the Stun gun into Joe’s shoulder, giving it a short blast. 

It was as effective on Joe as others had been on Steve, and all three men grabbed him so he didn’t hit his head on the table or on the ground as he fell. Joe slumped, unconscious, against Kame’s chest as Danny quickly shoved the Stun gun back in his pocket out of sight, and he looked around his two associates for Chin. 

 

Chin watched from the inside of the shack as White finally appeared and he stayed like that for the time being. He could hear what was going on, Danny was wired and their voices were being recorded onto Chin’s ipad with him, just in case the elder SEAL said something they could use. 

But, as expected, he hadn’t and as soon as it was becoming obvious he wasn’t going to, Chin stood and started moving. Kamekona and his cousin Keo were waiting for Danny’s signal or Joe White trying to leave, whichever came first and they both moved quickly and quietly into place when Joe started to stand. Chin knew how light Kame could be on his feet and he grinned at the surprised expression on White’s face as he turned to be confronted by them both. 

At that Chin headed off to the Camaro, Steve’s keys in hand, his faith in Danny and the other two absolute, and quickly got in, ignited the engine and drove it to the group, as close as he could. There weren’t very many people around this late in the afternoon, but the last thing either of them wanted was someone calling the police if they saw the four of them carrying an unconscious man to the sidewalk about fifty yards away. As it was they were still in danger of being caught, but if anyone asked he could always explain Joe away as having a seizure of some sort and they were taking him to hospital. 

Kamekona and Keo easily carried Joe’s unconscious form between them to the car, and Chin and Danny folded down the front seats so they could manhandle him into the back. It was hard work, Joe was not a small man, and Chin was grateful he could stretch his back when they were done. He stood back and let Danny wedge himself in the rear footwell and expertly zip tie White’s wrist and ankles together, before quickly patting him down and removing his phone, a small notepad and a handgun from one of the SEAL’s pockets and a smaller one from an ankle holster, all of which he handed off to the Lieutenant. “Why didn’t we just put him in the trunk?” Chin asked him as he accepted the haul.

Danny huffed a laugh and back out of the car, pushing the passenger seat back as he did so. “I didn’t have anywhere safe to stash the hardware in there,” he explained. “Do you really Joe White, a pissed off Joe White loose with all Steve’s toys?”

“Point,” Chin conceded. “Very good point.”

 

Soon, after profusely thanking their helpers and assuring Keo, who was surprisingly softly spoken, that they had done enough and didn’t need to follow them, Chin and Danny drove away, Danny not sparing the horses. “We don’t want him to wake up before we’re less than half way there,” the blond detective told his dark haired counterpart. Danny was keyed up that it had worked so far, but the closer they got to where they had left Chin’s bike, so he could drop him off before he got the Adam’s house the more nervous and worried he got. Chin noticed his rapid change of mood and laid a hand on his arm. “It’ll work out,” he assured him. “Everything is in place. If Adam isn’t going to play ball, we have the other options, and my cousin has enough sway with him to keep him in line. It’ll work.”

Danny sighed and glanced in the rear view to the unresponsive man in the back of his car. “We’ve just kidnapped a decorated Navy SEAL and I’m just about to hand him over to the head honcho of a well-armed psychotic street gang,” he said darkly. “How..? What..?” He didn’t ask the ‘what the fuck are we doing?’ that he wanted to; instead he shook his head and concentrated on his driving. 

“What else can we do?” Chin asked him after some introspective thought. “Jenna’s death and Steve’s torture hasn’t loosened his tongue. What else can we do?”  
“I don’t know,” Danny breathed, and kept driving.

 

It took a few minutes to get to Chin’s bike, and the rider got out of Danny’s car and retrieved the burlap sack he had packed in one saddlebag. He quickly climbed back in; knelt on the seat he had just vacated and reached through to check their prisoner. Joe was breathing, his heartbeat strong, and he didn’t react to the fingers in his throat or when his head was jostled some as Chin slipped the sack over him. That done the detective turned back to Danny who was resolutely looking around them for any trouble and squeezed his arm again. “Do you want me to come with you?” he asked him.

Danny shook his head and looked at him. Even though his mind was telling him yes, yes please, he knew he couldn’t. “No,” he replied. “I don’t want you in on this. Just wait for me here, please?”

Chin wasn’t surprised at his answer and he nodded reluctantly. “Okay,” he agreed and let him go. “I’ll wait for twenty minutes and then I’m coming to find you. Okay?”

Danny nodded – that was what they had planned as well. “Twenty minutes,” he agreed. 

Chin nodded and with one more look at White in the back he climbed out of the car and shut the door behind him. He stood back and watched as Danny straightened his shoulders, settled himself back in his seat and took a deep breath before he pulled the car away. 

Chin watched him go and stepped back to his parked bike, checking the time on his watch as he did so. He marked the time and prepared himself to wait for his friend and partner’s return. The planning and arranging of this op had taken the best part of two days, but he knew these next twenty minutes where he was letting Danny go into the proverbial lion’s den were going to be the longest he’d gone through in some time. 

tbc


	4. Interlude

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The calm (relatively) before the storm

Part 4 – Interlude

 

Steve stared at his phone as he paced the living area and balcony of Danny’s suite worriedly and impatiently. He knew enough of what was going on to know where his partner had gone, and it was very difficult for him to stand back and let this happen. Joe was his friend, mentor, whatever, but Danny? Danny was so much more than that, and it had taken the guy to do something like this for the Commander to realise it. Danny had never lied to him, he’d never kept anything from him apart from his own insecurities and those Steve had managed to wheedle out of him eventually. He knew he had been out of line when he had snapped down at him about knowing Joe longer, he knew he was lucky that Danny had laughed at him rather than punching him but he felt soulsick that the detective, his best friend, who had already lost so much because of Steve’s own actions, was now putting himself in harm’s way, again, for Steve.

He hated being on the sidelines, but understood why he was; Noshimuri would never go for it if he were there with Danny. He just hoped Danny and Chin’s faith in the guy wasn’t unfounded, Danny was going in alone with someone who would probably shove him towards any gunman to get away himself – Steve knew Joe was perfectly capable of that, he had seen him do exactly that in a couple of situations. And why was Danny doing it? 

Because someone Steve had trusted was betraying him, again. 

So he paced, glancing at his phone, demanding it to ring, or Danny to walk in the door, something to let him know his best friend and partner was okay and safe. 

 

Chin was getting as ansty, starting to pace around his bike in the same manner as Steve a few miles away as he watched the time tick away. Twenty minutes was a long time when he was trying not to panic, all it would take would be a double tap to Danny’s head and it would all be over. But everything they had researched told him Adam Noshimuri was not like his father and uncle, and Chin was not expecting anything of the sort to happen which was why he had let Danny go – even though he knew the other detective was quite capable of looking after himself. 

He still paced though, still glared at his watch, wandering why it was virtually going backwards and cursed Zen; it had never prepared him for something like this. 

Just as he was about to throw in the towel and go in, Chin’s ears perked up at the noise he could hear. They had picked this spot because it was a quiet road going into Noshimuri’s neighbourhood, not many vehicles used it and there weren’t traffic cameras or CCTV around to record what they were doing.  
He knew it was the Camaro, the vehicle was blessed with a throaty growl when in motion, and he walked quickly to the roadside where he could see round the bend in the road. Danny was driving, not someone else to dump the car, and he pulled it to a stop beside the other man. Chin quickly checked the other seats, the car was empty apart from the driver, and Danny himself simply sat still and stared straight ahead, both hands on the steering wheel. He looked in shock, and Chin quickly pulled open his door and crouched beside him. “Danny!” he said sharply to get his attention, and tapped his knee. “Are you alright? Did it work? Danny?”

Danny swallowed and nodded. “Hook, line and sinker,” he said hoarsely. “White is now going to kill me, and Adam now has enough to get me convicted.”

Chin shook his head. “He’s not going to do that,” he assured him. “Can you drive back to the hotel?” he asked. “Or do you need me to drive?”

Danny finally looked at him and shook his head. “I can drive,” he answered him. “But can you follow?”

Chin nodded and stood. “Will do,” he said firmly and shut Danny’s door again. The man watched and waited for Chin to get on his bike and flick on the engine before he started to drive again. 

 

As promised Chin followed Danny as close as he could back to the hotel but he would much rather be in the car with the blond. It was always easier to talk about something than actually do it, and Chin himself was feeling some guilt. Danny? Who felt everything so deeply? He looked awful when they got there, and didn’t look any better as he waited, leaning against the car for Chin to finish making his hog secure. They had both spotted Steve’s behemoth of a truck nearby so knew he was in the vicinity, and Chin knew from the sick look on his friend’s face what was running though his mind. “Come on,” Chin told him and linked an arm with him. “Waiting isn’t going to make it any easier.”

Danny knew he was right and let him walk him away from his locked car and into the hotel. It was as if the world was against him – the elevator was empty and at the ground floor when they called for it, no one else got in and it didn’t stop at any floor other than his. There was no one in the corridors that stopped them, just a couple or people going the other way, and soon enough Danny was standing outside the door, the key card in his hand. He’d never been a coward, and he wasn’t going to start now, so he quickly shoved it in and opened the door, stepping in to his temporary home. 

Steve had heard the card and the lock beep and he was striding to the door when it opened. He stopped and took a few moments to study the two men as they walked in. Neither looked triumphant, he would have been beyond pissed if they had, but they didn’t have the look of failure on them either. “Well?” he asked them both as Chin closed the door behind them. “How did it go?”

Danny sighed from where he was unloading his weapons onto the nearby coffee table. “Clockwork,” he told him and let go of the stun gun as if it was a live snake. “But it feels like the worst defeat.”

Steve could understand that, he knew exactly how it felt – both Nick Taylor and Governor Jameson had pulled the same thoughts out of him. He wasn’t an empathic man, not like Danny, he couldn’t psychoanalyse like his friend could, but what he could do was show them both some understanding. “I got some more beer,” he told them and walked back over to the minibar. “Sit down and tell me everything.”

 

Joe White was livid. One of Noshimuri’s men had a tight hold of his wrists as he propelled him forward into a house he didn’t want to see again and however much he struggled he couldn’t get free of his hold or the zip ties. When he had come round in the car he had no idea where the hell he was or who had grabbed him – the last thing he remembered was talking to Williams and getting up to leave. He had a fleeting thought about the guy, wondered if whoever had taken him had taken Danny too, but then simply tried his bonds. He was stuck fast, and was starting to run possible scenarios through his mind when the rough sack over his head, obscuring his vision was removed. He blinked a few times to clear his eyes and looked up, and was astounded to see Adam Noshimuri above him and none of than Danny Williams standing behind him. 

The cop showed no sign that he was under duress, that he was captured too, and he avoided looking at Joe at all. Shit, the SEAL growled to himself as Noshimuri pulled back and rejoined the detective outside of the car – he’d been taken in by Williams and … what? His memory was returning quickly though, and by the time he was being pulled out of the back seat of Danny’s Camaro he remembered it all. The scheming little man had pulled him in, distracted him and had then caught him, with a stun gun it felt like from the throb in his shoulder. He was angry as he was shoved onto the ground, and that only grew as he looked up and spotted Danny talking with Noshimuri some feet away, as if they were old buddies. But that wasn’t strictly true, he thought as he studied them, the two men were tense, both kept looking in his direction every so often and he changed his assessment. Some of his anger he aimed at himself for being so blinkered – he had been so arrogant in his own abilities that he hadn’t thought the short cop was any sort of threat to him. Now he was paying for it, he was on the ground and simply too stunned to do more than stare and fume.

But he couldn’t let the asshole leave without letting him know how he felt. As the two bodyguards grabbed him, pulled him up to his feet his struggled some more and glared over at Danny. “This isn’t going to help McGarrett!” he yelled at the cop, but not feeling it – it might, with at least part of 5-0 at his back Joe didn’t know just how far Adam would go. But he did know what he was going to do about it: “I’m going to fucking kill you for this, Williams!” It was true, he was going to kill him, no one did something like this to him and got away with it, whomever the guy was a friend with. 

But first he needed to get out of this and he thought quickly. 

Danny wanted information that he was not prepared to give, but Adam Noshimuri wanted something he could do. 

So he waited in the living room with the other two guys, not the same that Steve had rescued him from, these two seemed to be a bit more wary of him than those, giving him some more space, watching his every move, both with hands on the butts of guns in shoulder holsters. Neither of them flinched or changed their stance when Adam walked back into the room. 

“So,” the younger man said to him and canted his head to one side to study him for a few moments. “It seems not everyone feels the same way about you as McGarrett does,” he commented. “I’m sure he’s not going to rescue you this time.”

“I may have been wrong about Williams,” Joe snarled at him. “But I’m not about McGarrett. He’ll be here.”

Adam shook his head. “It seems we were both wrong about Williams,” he replied. “Maybe you’ve pissed McGarrett off enough as well that he’s not going to be your knight in shining armour any more.”

“I’m not a damsel in distress!” the SEAL shouted at him and took a step towards him. 

But only one, he heard both bodyguards step forward, the recognisable sound of guns being unholstered and cocked, and he didn’t need anyone to tell him what they were aiming at. 

Adam hadn’t moved, he obviously trusted his people enough that he knew White wouldn’t get any closer to him, but Joe didn’t know it was also because Adam was quite capable of taking care of himself thank you very much. 

“Hmm,” Adam responded noncommittally, and stepped forward. “We’ll see.” With a meaningful look at his own back up he quickly patted White down. He didn’t find much, Danny and Chin had down the job themselves in the Camaro, and Joe tried to hide his dismay when all the other man could find was his wallet and a knife he kept in a concealed pocket in his jeans. His phone had gone, his gun, and his notepad that he had used to scribble his ideas in about this whole mess. If Danny had that in conjunction with his phone? He had no bargaining chips, it seemed that Williams had thought of everything, and he was in more trouble than he had previously thought. 

He found himself with nothing to say as Adam divested him of his belt, and started to work on his boots, finding another knife he had hidden in there too. Soon enough he found himself de-weaponised and being forced through the house to a set of basement stairs. They were steep and dark and he expected to be shoved down them, but he was surprised again. Both guards grabbed an arm each, and they followed Adam down the steps carefully, allowing Joe to keep his footing. At the bottom was a thick door that Adam was unlocking when they got there and he walked in, flicking on a light switch as he did so.  
“Welcome to your new home, Mister White,” Adam told him with an outstretched arm. 

Joe looked around him. The room, a cell more like, was small, but not uncomfortably so, and it had a bunk built into an alcove in the wall. There was a table and chair in the other corner, and another door to one side that Adam pushed open to show him a tiny bathroom. There were no windows the only door to the outside was the one they had come through. “I promised Danny I’m not going to kill or maim you,” Adam told him as he walked back towards the door. “And I’m going to keep to that. But he didn’t say anything about locking you up.” He used Joe’s own knife to cut the zip tie from his wrists, making sure he kept both ends of the tie himself and stepped back out of the room. “See you later, Mister White,” he told him with a smile, and shut the door on him.

Joe stood still as he heard the door lock, twice, and then a bolt slide home before he moved. He explored the space to see if there was anything he could use to help. There was nothing, the mattress that he had hoped was on a metal bed frame was actually just on the thick stone that had been cut out of the wall to make the alcove, and the table and chair were both bolted securely to the floor. Also the lights, a couple of LED lights embedded into the ceiling so there were no cords he could pull down or use either. The head was the same, the cistern was buried in the wall so he couldn’t use any of the mechanics, and both the sink and the toilet were also bolted to the wall and floor. 

Whoever had designed the room had done a great job, there was nothing there for him to use. He returned from his exploring and sat down on the mattress, in the alcove, and picked at the pillow on top of the mattress and looked around him. He was well and truly caught, he had completely underestimated Detective Williams, and he knew that, where he was now was testament to that. He simply had not expected Danny to do something like this, he had known the guy had a fiery temper but he hadn’t realised just how much Danny cared for Steve. It put his own machinations to shame he admitted to himself, and he found himself smiling a bit at it all. When he had been telling Steve he had his best interests at heart, he meant he had his own at heart and Steve’s second. With Danny it was obviously the other way round, and this was the result. 

He sighed and looked down at sock covered feet. “You’ve got some balls, Danny,” he murmured. “But so have I.” And if Danny could plot, so could Joe. First things first, he had to get out of here, and without his phone he would have to persuade Adam, maybe go into some arrangement with him. Once he was out he could pay the little detective a visit, and commiserate with Steve afterwards. 

 

Steve listened to the two men as they explained to him what had happened and was surprised at how they had dealt with it all. Danny let Chin do most of the talking, he was standing by the closed balcony windows and staring out at the landscape, virtually the same stance Steve had used a couple of days ago. He was tense, his shoulders hunched over, hands in his jeans pockets and he looked haggard all of a sudden. 

In a break in the talk Steve grabbed another beer, stood and walked over to him, but didn’t smile when Danny jumped at the hand he laid on his shoulder. “You didn’t get hurt?” he asked as he had to press the bottle into Danny’s hand.

Danny shook his head and took the bottle from him. “I’m fine,” he assured him, and turned back to stare out of the window. 

Steve looked down at him and had a brief thought of maybe this frustration was how Danny felt when he gave him the silent treatment. “Drink your beer,” he murmured in his ear, and gently squeezed his arm before he let him go and took charge. “Chin,” he said to him as he turned back to his other friend. “Are you all right to go home?” he asked. “Is Malia gonna be there? Do you want to stay here?”

Malia was going to be there, she had a rare night off and he could do with spending time with her. But Danny? He wasn’t prepared to leave him on his own. He studied the SEAL for a few moments before he put his half empty beer bottle down. “Only if you’re not going to take anything out on your partner,” he said firmly.

Steve shook his head and walked over to him. “I might have if neither of you had involved me,” he admitted. “But even then all I might have done was shout. I’d never hurt Danny, Chin, or you. Please believe that.”

Chin nodded straight away, he had no worries about that. “I know,” he assured him. “But who are you going to choose if it comes to it?” he asked quietly, looking across at Danny. “Your partner there, who gave up everything he cared about for you, and is prepared to do that again? Or some old SEAL who’s done nothing but lie to you?”

It wasn’t a question Steve wanted to answer, but he knew he would have to, and he might have to do it in practice if Joe went after Danny. Chin was right; Danny had done that for him, giving up the promise of his family again, something he had yearned for since before he’d known Steve, and something Steve could never repay him for. “Truthfully, I don’t want to answer that question,” he answered his friend. “But if I have to, I will stand with Danny.”

Chin nodded, satisfied, and walked over to Danny, still staring out of the windows. “Are you going to be all right, brah?” he asked him when he looked up. “If I go home?”

Danny nodded. “I’ll be fine,” he replied, and looked over at Steve watching them. “We’ll be fine, thanks for this.”

Chin nodded and patted his shoulder. “We’ll talk tomorrow,” he assured him. “If you need me, call. Okay?”

“Okay,” Danny agreed. “You too.”

Chin nodded and studied him for a few moments before he stepped away. He gave Steve a meaningful look as he walked past him, the Commander knew when he was telling him and he nodded – he wasn’t a stupid man, and Chin was dangerous when crossed. 

Steve relaxed when Chin left the suite, closing the door behind him, and turned back to Danny. “I don’t think I’ve been so thoroughly threatened in silence before,” he told him as he walked back over. 

Danny gave him a small smile and sipped some of his beer. “I’m sorry he did that,” he apologised, and sipped again. “And all of this too,” he added with a half-hearted wave of his hand. 

Steve shook his head. “Don’t be,” he answered him and slipped his free arm around Danny’s waist. “I know why you did it, I understand.” He shook his head and then buried it in his partner’s neck. “I never wanted you to have to do something like this for me, Danny,” he murmured, his voice muffled. “I never wanted you to be in Korea, chasing after me either.”

Danny sighed and pressed his hand to Steve’s back to comfort them both. “You’re my partner, my best friend,” he replied as if that answered everything. And in some ways, it did. 

 

TBC


	5. Aftermath Part 1

The Aftermath pt 1

(this chapter in 2 parts because it was a bit long!)

The next morning was quiet, by 5-0 standards, mostly paperwork for Danny, and Steve kept himself in the office too, sending Kono and Lori out if needed, and letting Chin do what he wanted. Danny had hardly slept, Steve had planned to leave him and go home the previous evening but as the night wore on and his partner got more ansty, he stayed and was pleased he had. Danny's nightmares woke them both, and after the third time he had woken with a cry, Danny had slipped out of bed, grabbed a book and was planning on spending the night on the balcony.

Steve had woken some time later and panicked when he found he was alone, but quickly spotted him out on the balcony and got up to go to him. "You're going to get eaten alive, Danno," he told him as he walked out, making his partner jump in his seat.

The detective looked up at him balefully. "Why are you awake?" he asked the SEAL.

Steve shrugged. "Why are you?" he countered.

"Oh, I don't know," Danny retorted dryly. "The view."

Steve smiled fondly, knowing what he wasn't saying. "What's done is done," he replied him and grabbed his hand. "If we don't get anything from them tomorrow we'll go and visit. Okay?" he suggested.

Danny sighed and nodded, and let his partner pull him to his feet and back in the suite. "Come on," Steve told him and pulled him back to the bed. Danny grumbled but let himself be manhandled back into the bed, spooned against Steve, of course the great goof took the outside, but Danny let him and listened to his friend settle back to sleep again. He didn't sleep very much himself, thinking too much about Joe White, Steve, Wo Fat and all the chaos around that. He didn't admit to himself that he also spent a while wishing what they could be doing in this huge bed other than sleeping to, but he thought, after this, the last thing Steve would want to do was him.

 

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Chin waited until Kono and Lori went out to get some more information from a couple of witnesses before he tapped on the open door of Danny's office. Both occupants – Steve had moved into there earlier and they were sharing the desk – looked up at him expectantly. "I was going to download Joe's phone." he told them and glanced over at Steve. "Unless…"

Steve stood. "We'll have to ignore anything too private," he commented with a wince.

Chin nodded thoughtfully. "I can run a program that picks out only things relevant to Noshimuri, the Yakuza, and Wo Fat," he told him.

"What about that notebook?" Danny asked while Steve mulled over Chin's suggestion. "Have you looked at it?"

Chin nodded and chucked it over. "I can't read it," he said with a smile as Danny caught it. "Joe's writing is almost as bad as Steve's. You can read that so you might be able to decipher this."

Danny grinned over at his partner for a moment. "It's a skill I've had to perfect," he commented and then concentrated on the notes in front of him. It was filled with chicken scratch, but he could read most of it and it seemed to be some random thoughts. But there was relevant stuff, and he pulled his own notepad close and started to make his own notes. He was soon absorbed, and he waved away the other guys when they laughed at him and went out to the tech table.

It didn't take long for them all to reconvene in Danny's office with their retrospective investigations. Joe's phone held a wealth of information, photos, phone numbers, texts and emails. They found Hiro Noshimuri's phone number almost immediately; there were also some photos of the guy in what looked like Japan in the garden of a small house with a volcano in the background. There were also some links to some websites stored, and it looked like Joe had been using these and other things to track (or attempt to track) Wo Fat.

Danny as well had some success, as he worked though the notebook. Some of it seemed to be a to – do list, and Danny frowned at some points on the top of it: copy 5-0 files; check personnel. Why the hell has he been checking on them? A few pages on made him frown even more. The top of the page, written in Joe's scrawl, was: What is Danny made of?

He really didn't want to know what the elder SEAL had thought about himself, so he bypassed that one, to find the next pages dedicated to the same titles about his teammates. He avoided those too.

Then he spotted a diagram that Joe had drawn out, Wo Fat in the middle with lines linking him to others, including the Hesse brothers, the McGarretts, Governor Jameson, Sang Min, and another that had him frowning – Hoffman. Before he could think too much about that Steve ducked his head around the doorframe and called him. "Danny, you may want to see this."

His partner looked up, nodded and stood. "You may want to see this too," he told him and gathered up the paperwork. Steve nodded and stepped out of the way to let him out and they flanked each other to and at the tech table.

Chin quickly showed him the files from the phone, even a couple of photos of them as a group that Joe seemed to have taken from a distance. "Why would he be following us?" Chin asked, confused.

Danny showed them both the pages in the notebook pertaining to them all. "These are at the front," he explained. "I think he was only checking us all out. Although…" he added and indicated to the 'to do' list he'd found. "We may find more at his apartment."

Steve agreed with Danny's assessment, it would have been something he might have done, but he hadn't, he'd gone with gut instinct with Danny especially. But… "I've got a key to his apartment," he told them both.

Chin nodded. "We may need to go, find out what he's got stashed there," he suggested.

Steve sighed and glanced over at Chin while he, unconsciously, leant closer to Danny. There appeared to be so much about Joe he didn't know, he had been doing so many things that he'd not mentioned, that the Commander had no inkling about, and he looked down at his partner. "Dan…?" he queried, and Danny looked up at his quickly.

He was concerned, Steve didn't call him that often, and he quickly laid a hand on his arm. "What?" he asked him. "Are you okay?"

"I didn't know any of this," the SEAL explained to him. "He hasn't told me anything, has he?"

Danny shook his head. "He's not said anything to anyone," he replied grimly. "But that's going to change now."

Steve nodded but he didn't say anything, in fact he simply listened to the other two discuss their findings. It was difficult for him to take a step back and let this happen, he had first hand experience now of how Danny had felt when they were accusing Meka Hanamoa of being dirty. This though? This was a bit different, here they were trying to figure out what Joe was up to and his motives – with Meka's case it had been about money, pure and simple, but not this, this was far more complicated.

"We need to go to his apartment," he said as he rejoined the conversation. "And we'll go and get Joe tomorrow if we don't get a call from Adam. Okay?" He wasn't asking, and both Danny and Chin knew it from the look on his face.

"Yes," Chin said firmly with a nod and shared a look with Danny who agreed wholeheartedly. "Have you got his key on you? We can go now, before Lori and Kono get back," the Lieutenant added. "I'm sure you don't want them involved," he added, looking at them both.

"I do have the key," Steve assured him. "And you're right, I don't want them involved."

"Then we'd better go now," Danny cautioned them. "Kono will figure out something is going on pretty quickly, especially if we all just troop out when they're here. And Lori won't be too far behind."

Steve studied him for a few moments while he thought about it and nodded. "Let's go," he agreed, turned on his heel and went back to his office to get the key, leaving his compatriots to get themselves sorted on their own. He trusted them enough to do exactly that, and was not surprised to find them both reconvening at the table again when he returned, Danny carrying one of their forensic cases, Chin with a computer bag, both always kept full and well equipped for just such quick grabs. He held out his hand for Danny's keys but frowned when his partner shook his head with an impish grin. "Chin's driving, he told him, and chuckled at his SEAL's consternation. "And there it is, Aneurism face," he commented, amused as he headed to the main entrance, Chin next to him. "Does it work on you?" he asked the Lieutenant.

Chin shook his head and looked over his shoulder as he held the door open for Danny. "Are you coming, Boss?" he asked Steve who was just watching them in surprise.

Steve sighed and nodded, striding over to him. "But I call shotgun," he said as he passed him at the door.

Chin laughed quietly and shook his head fondly. Danny was already half way down the stairs, and Chin wasn't going to get involved in their arguments, but it might be amusing to watch.

 

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Joe spent an uncomfortable night in his new, hopefully temporary, quarters. He was concerned it would get too hot and stuffy but there seemed to be an almost constant trickle of cool air coming in from somewhere that kept the small space at a comfortable temperature at least. That was the only bonus, he was completely locked in; the hinges were on the outside of the door and he couldn't play with those, there was also no access to the locks on his side of the door either, so even if he did have anything he could have used to pick the lock, he had no way to do it. It also only took twenty steps to walk the walls; five for each of the square and it didn't take long for him to get bored of that. He did have running water, at least, it was clean, clear and fresh but he would need more than that to sustain him.

There was also nothing to do. Joe was normally doing something, if he wasn't sleeping, either his own projects, helping Steve (huh) and/or things with other friends in Hawaii. So being shut in here without anything to write with or read, was as, or even more tortuous than being smacked around a bit by an overzealous bodyguard. All he could do was think, and that was leading down to a dark place.

What did Danny mean when he said Steve knew what was going on, where he was? He could, if he thought hard about it, understand some of Danny's reasoning, the guy was curious after all, it was obviously annoying him that he didn't know what was going on.

But Steve? Why would he be involved in this? After everything he had done for the kid? He had lost his entire career because he had gone after him into a hostile country on an unsanctioned mission after all. But why had Steve been lured therein the first place? a traitorous part of his mind asked. It came from an area he stored stuff he didn't want to think about – such as guilt, fear, and sorrow. Because he hadn't helped Jack McGarrett when the man had asked him, hadn't believed him when the cop had explained all of his theories – paranoid conspiracies Joe had called them. But Jack had been right; and he had been murdered because of that with his estranged son forced to listen in. How Steve had kept it together after that was because of his resilience and sheer stubbornness, Joe knew, but he was also beginning to think Danny had a hand in it too, as well as Kono and Chin.

Joe had thought Steve believed him when he told him some things, lied about others, and kept a lot more from him, he had thought the younger man trusted him enough to let him carry on as he had been, weaving his own conspiracies around them all.

Being wrong was not something Joe was used to, and he hated it. Being wrong to such a level that he had ended up being cornered like a rat in a cage in a gangbanger's basement? Inconceivable.

But he couldn't keep brooding about it, what he had to do was get out.

A small meal had been delivered to him the previous evening and from his body clock he had thought another was due. The men who had delivered it yesterday had said nothing to him, one had opened the door, told him to step back and placed a tray on the table, all the time being watched by another guy, armed, gun held in his hand as he watched the proceedings. Neither said anything to him, even when he asked to speak to Adam, and he wasn't stupid enough to force the issue. He let them lock him back in before he kicked the door and shouted for Adam again, but nothing.

Now though, was different. He heard someone, several by the footfalls, walk down the stairs and stepped back from the door when he was ordered – even he wasn't going to risk being caught in such a murder hole as this little room.

His patience seemed to have paid off when the door opened to reveal the head of the household. He wasn't alone, Joe didn't think he would be, and he stepped in warily. "You slept well?" Adam asked him, looking Joe up and down.

"What do you think?" the older guy retorted sharply.

Adam lifted an eyebrow and took in his appearance. The guy looked dishevelled, unshaven, his shirt wrinkled, pants too, he'd slept in his clothes Adam knew from the CCTV in the ceiling. He also knew that Joe had eaten the meal provided, after checking it out carefully. "I had thought you'd find these accommodations a lot more comfortable than they could have been," he retorted, and picked up the tray from the table. He had debated leaving it in here all night with the SEAL, but it was only lightweight plastic and he had, after all, been curious as to what Joe would do with it.

He hadn't done much; it was only a flimsy plastic tray, nothing he could really use as a weapon but he had looked it over thoroughly when he had finished his meal.

"Just be thankful you got this," Adam told him, momentarily annoyed. "I could have chained you up outside all night. Or put some bullets through your skull and told Danny you tried to escape."

"Why didn't you?" Joe demanded and stepped forward towards him. He only took one, as soon as he moved one of Adam's guards leapt into the room, stepped in between them and shoved him back to the bunk.

"Sit," the guard snapped at him. "Inu*" he hissed, and stepped back beside Adam.

Joe glared at him. "I'm not a dog," he retorted, but leant against the bunk anyway. He was tired, but not stupid and ignored him for Adam. "What do you want?" he demanded, a base line from which he could start. "You must want something or you wouldn't be doing this,"

"My father," Adam retorted, his expression and tone telling him how stupid he thought Joe's question was. "Where is he? What did you do with him? Did you kill him?" he asked, his voice hitched a little at that, whatever his father was, he was still his father.

Joe sighed theatrically, putting as much effort into it as he could. "He's alive," he explained darkly. "I helped him to escape."

Adam stared at him in disbelief. "From where?" he demanded. "To where? From whom? And where's your proof?"

Joe smiled humourlessly. "My proof?" he asked him. "My proof is on my phone. And since you've not got it I can only assume Williams has." He shrugged. "I told McGarrett about your Dad a couple of days ago, when he came to get me last time," he explained. "Either he kept it to himself, or he told Williams." He looked at him, straight in the eye. "And if he told Williams, then you've been played."

Adam studied him for a few moments before he said anything, thoughts running through his brain. He could see why Danny distrusted this man so much; he was trying to manipulate him even now. Adam was a curious man though and was content to let it play out. "He's played you, too," he commented and looked them pointedly. "Look where he's got you."

"Hmm," Joe murmured, and Adam could see the thoughts rattling through his eyes. "Williams has got my phone," he stated. "He would have found it when he searched me." And how pissed was he about that? "He's probably downloaded it by now, got the phone numbers, and may even be speaking to your Dad right now," he added slyly. "Did he leave you a contact number for him?" he asked.

Adam nodded. "But what are you hiding from him?" he asked him curiously. "What about McGarrett? Must be something big for Danny Williams to do something like this."

Adam didn't expect White to tell him anything, but he was surprised therefore, when the guy did. "I've been working on Jack McGarrett's murder," the elder SEAL told him. "Williams just doesn't like not being involved."

Adam stared at him for a moment before he laughed and shook his head. "Right," he replied dryly. "And he handed you over to us because he's feeling left out. No, Mister White," he told him with a shake of his head. "It's so much more than that, and you're not getting out of here until you tell me something more," he told him and glanced over at his companion. "I'll get someone to bring down his breakfast," he told him. "Stay here and lock up again." When the guy nodded Adam glanced at Joe again, and then left the room without a backwards look.

Joe watched him go, calculating what the man might do now, and turned back to the bodyguard still perusing him. The guy was just studying him for a moment and smirked at him when Joe demanded: "What?" from him. He didn't elaborate, he simply left the little room when there was some more movement outside. Someone else had turned up, and another bodyguard put another tray of supplies on his table, this was the one that reminded Joe of Chin. "Do you know Chin Ho Kelly?" he asked him as the man turned to face him.

The guy shrugged indifferently. "I know a lot of people, Mister White," he answered, and walked out again.

The heavy door was shut and looked behind him, and Joe was left alone again. He couldn't infer anything from that, at all, and he sighed and perused his breakfast. A couple of pastries in a sealed package, a half litre sealed bottle of OJ, a small, again sealed box of Fruit Loops and a sealed bottle of milk to go with it. Just like his last meal they were making sure he thought it hadn't been tampered with by giving him everything new, fresh and unopened.

Apparently.

But what was he going to do – starve? Adam may have told Williams that he wasn't going to maim or kill him, but Joe knew people changed their minds, easily. So he sighed, sat down at the table and ate his breakfast.

 

TBC

* Inu is dog in Japanese (according to Google anyway - if it's not, please let me know!)


	6. Aftermath part 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Might get a bit icky!

Aftermath part 2

(this chapter is in 2 parts because it got a bit large! And heavy going)

(also may have some spoilers for finale and 2.22 (but I've not seen those yet so can't be sure))

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Steve unlocked Joe's front door with some trepidation and stepped in the small apartment. It was a little bigger than Danny's old place, but a whole lot tidier, mainly because Joe didn't have hardly as much as Danny did with Gracie's stuff as well. The three quickly got to work and it wasn't long before they found Joe's files, hidden in a wicker footstool.

"He's got copies of everything," Chin commented as he went through the pile of paper he found. He handed them out to the other two who had joined him and they flicked through them all.

"Looks like he's got everything on Wo Fat," Danny said as he looked through a file, put it on a table and picked another.

"And us," Chin added as he studied one more. "This one has got everything about all of us," he explained and looked up at the other two. "Including my uncle."

Steve frowned and reached for the thick paper file Chin held. When he got it he looked through it from start to finish, sitting down on the couch while the other two continued searching for other stuff, Danny rummaging in a chest of drawers nearby. Chin was right; Joe had compiled everything possible on all four of them, including things on Mary, Matthew Williams and Chin and Kono's vast family.

He only looked up when Danny sat down beside him, another file in his hands. "He's got everything," the SEAL said to his partner, his expression a mixture of 'what the fuck', 'how the fuck' and 'how dare he?'

Danny frowned too. "I can understand why with us," he said, using his hand to point out himself and Chin. "He doesn't know us. But you? Why you?"

Steve shrugged. "People change," he responded, and put the file down, he didn't want to see any more of that. "What have you got?" he asked him, and nodded down at the file in his partner's hand.

Danny moved a hand to show him what was written on the outside – Shelbourn.

It was another thick file and Steve's mouth suddenly went dry when he saw it. "Have you looked in it?" he asked Danny, who shook his head and handed it over.

"Not yet," the detective told him. "I found it taped underneath a drawer, over there," he explained, and pointed to a desk opposite them. "Didn't take long to find," he cautioned as he watched Steve open it slowly.

"Maybe he wanted it to be found," Chin continued Danny's thoughts.

Steve nodded and looked around them. "Pack everything up, we'll take it back to the Palace and go through it there," he told them, closed the file and stood. "I saw a couple of crates over there," he added, indicating to an area tucked away in the corner. He didn't mention that he didn't actually want to be here doing this in Joe's space, but he didn't need to. Danny took one look at his face and nodded, and Chin walked over to the SEAL and handed him the keys to his SUV. "Bring it round to the front," he explained and took the file from him with Steve stood and handed it to him.

"Make sure…" the SEAL began, but stopped and just walked away, leaving them to it.

Danny watched him walk out before he looked over at Chin. "Let's get this done before he changes his mind."

Chin nodded and went for the crates, putting the file he had in the bottom of one, making sure it was there. Between them they went through the apartment meticulously, grabbing everything they could use and piling it into the crates. Steve didn't return to the apartment, and Danny was surprised that he hadn't taken the Shelbourn file to read in the car, so the pair, when they had done, both picked up an overloaded crate and left the apartment. The door locked behind them and Danny followed Chin out of the complex.

Steve had driven the SUV to the foot of the stairs and had opened the trunk, but he was leaning against the side of the vehicle, arms folded across his chest, staring down at the ground. He only looked up when Danny called to him as he and Chin loaded their boxes in the back. "The door locked behind us," he told him and walked over to him as Chin shut the trunk door. "Do you want me to go back and double lock it?"

Steve shook his head. "Let's just go," he replied, and made his way to the driver's seat, only to find Chin already climbing in. With a sigh he spotted Danny getting into the passenger side beside Chin, and climbed in the back. "I knew I should have stayed in the car," he grumbled, making Danny smile.

 

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Kono looked around the offices when she and Lori returned with a frown. She had expected some of the male members of the team to be visible, but no. All she could see was Danny and Chin's empty offices, and the blinds down in Steve's. She hummed to herself and walked over to the tech table, frowning again when she found it locked, and password-protected. "Okay," she said to herself firmly and strode over to Steve's office. She knocked on the door and walked in, not waiting for a reply.

All three were there, Chin sitting on the couch, looking up from his laptop, while Danny and Steve were huddled together at Steve's desk. It looked like they had been there for a while, she and Lori had been out for a trio of hours after all; Danny had brought his chair in from his office, and there was paperwork spread out in front of them.

Steve put his hand over the file they were looking at and looked up at her intrusion while Danny finished scribbling on what looked like a mind map in front of him.

"Did you get anything from the witnesses?" Steve asked her. "Any trouble?"

Kono nodded. "No trouble, but we got a bit more from them, yes," she answered. "What are you three doing in here?" she asked and stepped closer to check out the files. "This isn't about our case."

Danny looked at her and then back at Steve. "Up to you," he said quietly, and carried on with what he had been doing.

Steve sighed. He had thought he was going to be able to keep all of this Shelbourn stuff away from his friends and team, but Danny made sure that didn't happen. And here they were. "It's about Wo Fat," he told her. "And I need you to keep Lori out of it. Okay?" he asked quickly. "We'll fill you in when she's not around."

She wasn't pleased, but could see the way he kept looking past her to the open door of his office to where he could hear Lori banging around. "Okay," she agreed. "But don't forget.

Steve shook his head and relaxed a bit. "Thanks," he replied, and nodded at her. She nodded back and walked back out to deal with Lori, shutting the door firmly behind her.

"Why is the table locked?" Lori asked as she tapped it again when Kono walked over. "We need to use it."

"It's running an update Chin set," Kono replied and pushed Weston's hand away from the screen. "He's locked it to stop anyone using it while it's running. He gets very possessive."

Lori sighed and stepped back; she knew that. "Okay," she grumbled, and looked up at Kono. "We'll have to use a laptop then." She looked around her to the empty offices and frowned at the closed state of Steve's. "Are they all in there?" she asked curiously. "What are they doing?"

Kono shrugged, pleased that her stint as undercover had allowed her to lie quite well. "Case review," she told her, which wasn't completely untrue. "Come on, let's get this done," she added and walked over to her own office. "Best to leave them alone."

Lori looked back at the office and had a fleeting thought to check on Steve, but decided not to, and followed Kono; Danny was probably glued to the Commander's side anyway.

 

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Joe started to feel unwell some time after his breakfast. At first he couldn't pinpoint what the problem was, he felt lightheaded when he got up from the table to pace his little room but put it down to getting up too quickly and his stressful situation. But when his stomach started to grumble and complain he knew something else was up. It was getting worse quickly, his belly started to cramp painfully he climbed back onto the bunk and curled up, arms around his stomach, and groaned. He had thought, with the sealed packets, he'd be safe from anything Noshimuri might have dosed him with, but it was becoming more obvious with every passing minute that that wasn't the case. He groaned when a particularly painful cramp rippled through him, and then he had to quickly scramble off the bunk and into the mini bathroom when it became urgent. One good thing about having a small bathroom, he could throw up in the sink while purging diarrhoea into the john.

After a particular nasty bout he groaned again and pressed his forehead to the cool wall, and tried to distract himself by coming up with more and more violent ways he could kill Danny with.

He didn't know how long it was before he felt safe enough to clean up and move back out into the little room, but he did and headed straight to the bunk again. He hadn't been that ill for a long time and he ended up rolling himself up in the blankets, trying to warm himself up. It wasn't long before he started to feel drowsy, his lack of sleep from the night before and sickness creeping up on him. Sleep was now easy to come by and he embraced it with both arms.

When he woke again he knew immediately that he wasn't alone, he could hear someone else breathing, and he forced his eyes open to see whoever it was.

Adam Noshimuri sat at the table, lounging in the chair and he looked bored. He may have been there for a while, which made the older SEAL frown, questioning why he hadn't woken him up, and why he hadn't woken up himself when the door had been opened.

He shifted, a small move to stretch his back, but enough to get Adam's attention and the guy looked up at him from where he had been staring at the floor. "Feeling better?" Adam asked him, and Joe couldn't hear any malice in his tone.

"A little," Joe replied after a few moments thought. "Cramps have gone." He was going to continue but managed to stop talking only thought sheer force of will. He would never have given the guy the satisfaction of replying. Unless he was under the influence of something. "What did you give me?" he demanded and forced himself to sit up. The dizzy spell concerned him, and he leant back against the wall, eyes closed and breathed through his nose to ride it out.

Adam waited it out, ready to grab the bucket he had brought in with him when Joe paled – whatever he felt about the man he didn't want to be covered in his puke. The guard he had asked to watch the CCTV feed had reported that the drug was taking its course, literally, a couple of hours ago, and he was relatively sure White would be over the worst of that by now. But it was always a good plan to be prepared. "Just a little something to loosen your tongue," he answered Joe's question when the man opened his eyes again. "You ready to talk? Or do you want to give me some more macho bull? I can always employ some more extreme methods, it's about time I published another scientific paper."

"Screw you," Joe growled. "I thought you told Williams you weren't going to maim me."

Adam canted his head to one side and studied him. "You keep mentioning that." he commented curiously. "Why? Are you scared?" When Joe refused to answer him he shrugged. "I can make it up to Danny," he added nonchalantly. "Where's my father?" he asked, his tone easy, as if he was asking him what he wanted for dinner. "Where did you take him?"

Joe pressed his lips together, trying to stop the sudden compulsion to tell him everything, but he failed. "Japan," he growled angrily.

Adam nodded thoughtfully; the country was his family's ancestral home after all. "Why?" he questioned, having difficulty in keeping his tone light. The cocktail they had injected into Joe's milk was a new version of an old favourite of his father's and he knew if he pushed too hard White's SEAL training would kick in. It was difficult though, he really wanted to grab the SEAL and shake all the information out of him.

"Safe there," Joe forced out, each word ripped out of his treasonous mouth.

"From whom?" Adam asked, frowning. Not McGarrett, the guy had already got the elder Noshimuri where he wanted him, in prison and on trial for murder.

"Wo…Fat…" Joe replied, and pushed his fist into his mouth to stop himself from giving anything else away.

Adam's frown deepened. He had grown up with his father's business and associates visiting, he knew Wo Fat, not well but enough to know he didn't like him or his Dad dealing with him. But he had seen the pair of them, heads together, in his father's study in this very house, plotting, planning and arranging. He'd never seen them argue though, but he admitted to himself, he hadn't been here as much over recent years so he could have missed that.

"Why?" he asked Joe again, and waited for a response. He watched him steadily, he was a patient man, and he trusted his chemist.

Eventually he got a reply; Joe removed his fist. "Liability for Wo Fat," he mumbled, and shook his head to try and clear it. "His number is in my phone," he gave him, again, and slumped against the wall again.

Adam watched him and decided to change tactic – he didn't want to force him, he didn't want to treat the elder man for a heart attack as he tried to fight him. "Tell me about McGarrett," he asked him after a minute or two of silence. "What are you hiding from him?"

 

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Danny concentrated on what was in front of him and shook his head as he read it. He had commandeered a couple of folders that intrigued the intelligence analyst in him, Joe's notepad and his phone, and really didn't like where it was taking him. Chin had downloaded a spreadsheet he had traced to an encrypted cloud storage Internet site, he explained it to the other detective who had listened avidly but understood about half of it. Danny could work spreadsheets, and with all the stuff in front of him, he had managed to find the encryption key Joe had used in all of his files. With it the nonsense that they had been reading suddenly started to make sense.

Steve was nose-deep in the huge Shelbourn file, Chin in a couple of others, and Danny had found himself immersed in what looked like imports and exports.

He frowned as he read some of the figures and titles in the spreadsheet again, and really didn't like it. So much so he looked up and sought out one of his partners for some clarification.

Chin was looking his way and spotted the disturbed look in his face. "Danny?" he called and stood, stretching his back as he did so. "What have you got?"

"It looks like Joe's either tracking all, or a lot, of the drugs being imported and exported in and out of the islands," Danny explained, which made Steve look up from the file he had grabbed.

"What?" the SEAL demanded, and uncrossed his long legs from in front of him, using them to scoot forward and join his partner. "Show me."

Danny pushed the laptop he was using back further onto the desk so they could all see it. "Look," he instructed, and used a finger to point out figures and words. "These look like imports, the codes are ports on the islands, I think H1 is Honolulu, H2 is Hilo etc.," he explained. "I think this column is either flight numbers or the initials of specific ships, and I think this one is type – H - heroin, C – cocaine, MET – methamphetamine, Ca – cannabis, and so on," he pointed out. "And this is weight, in kilos."

The other two could see on the screen what he meant and where he had come to that conclusion, and they studied the weight column in silence. The amounts on here made their huge haul a few months ago seem like a drop in the ocean, literally.

"Is there anything about export?" Steve asked as he tried to process what he was seeing. "If not, we should be swimming in the crap."

Danny nodded and used the laptop's track pad to go to the next sheet. "I think this one is export," he explained, and pointed to the same column arrangements. "It looks like there are three or four big players moving stuff in and out, using Hawaii as a trading post really," he explained. "Although a lot of it does seem to stay here," he added, pointing out the total on the exports, and then flicking back to imports.

Steve nodded. "How do you know its drugs?" he asked him curiously.

Danny pointed out a line on the import sheet "This one matches our $80million," he explained to him. "The exact way of importation, the same port, the same date and time, and the same weight. Exactly."

Chin asked the question the others were already thinking. "Is this all retrospective?" he asked. "Are there any due? And why didn't he give it to us?"

"It looks like he's got records for the next couple of months," Danny answered thoughtfully and pointed some more out. "But its going to take me a bit more work to figure it out," he added. He looked over at Steve and frowned at him. "What have you got in that Shelbourn file?"

Steve sighed and shook his head. "Nothing that pinpoints what or who it is," he told them darkly. "There's a lot of travel itineraries, so it makes me think Shelbourn is a person, but…" He shook his head. "I can't find anything to tell me who."

"How far back do the itineraries go?" Chin asked, and reached for his own file. "I've got something in here about property purchases, for the last twenty years."

Steve frowned and grabbed the sheets of paper he had been reading. "Twenty years," he growled and pointed it out. "Whoever it was left Hawaii twenty years ago, came back a few years later, for a while, and then left again. Looks like they spent some time in LA, San Diego, Virginia and Japan, if I've got the notes right."

Danny frowned again. "Isn't Coronado near San Diego?" he asked him thoughtfully. "When were you there?"

Steve nodded grimly. "When this person was there," he replied, knowing what he was getting at. "And it matches when Mary was in LA too."

"So whoever this Shelbourn is, seems to have been following you and Mary around," Chin commented, and quickly looked at the sheets Steve had been reading.

"Which is exactly what my Dad was trying to avoid when he sent us away," Steve stated and slumped back in his chair.

Danny laid a hand on his thigh and squeezed it gently for comfort. He was astounded at the extent of Joe's lies, and, therefore, betrayal of Steve, it made Jameson look like small fry compared. He just hoped Adam could get something out of White, anything that might allow them to finish this all off and give Steve some sort of closure.

 

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Joe groaned and wondered, again, if he was either going to throw up his liver or crap it out. He had thought that whatever he had ingested was starting to wear off when he had been 'talking' to Adam, but he was obviously mistaken. He had not eaten or drank anything the Yakuza had offered him since, just slackening his thirst from the tap water, but, as he started to retch again, he was beginning to wonder if there wasn't anything in that too. He had nothing left to throw up, just bile, and he spat that out in the sink, washed it away with the tap water and then paused for a moment before he cupped his hands and used it to swill out his mouth. Even if there was something in the tap water he couldn't go for very long without it, and he had to give Adam some credit for that. He'd known violence wouldn't work, he'd tried and failed, so he had tried something else and, Joe had to admit partially succeeded. Telling Adam where his father was wasn't too much of an admission for the SEAL, but no way was he going to admit to any Yakuza what he was hiding from McGarrett. That was something he had to keep to himself, whatever they put him through. Noshimuri and Williams didn't understand it, he had killed to keep those secrets, and he wasn't going to start spilling now, just because of some vomit, diarrhoea and stomach cramps.

But he had to do something, so he stood straight again, used some more cold water to wash his face, and walked back into the main room.

"Better?" Adam asked him again, and again without trace of amusement.

"Hmmm," Joe replied and stood over him. "You're an arrogant asshole."

Adam laughed quietly. "And you're not?" he questioned. "It seems to me that you're so arrogant you thought everyone was taken in by your machinations," he added, not in the least bit intimidated by the guy standing over him. "If they were, you wouldn't be here."

"Hmmm," Joe commented again eloquently again. "I've got plans for that," he replied. "And you know they have plans for you, don't you?" he questioned him, putting the next part of his plan into motion. "You're Yakuza. You know, as soon as 5-0 get what they want from you, they're going to turn on you, too."

Adam studied him again. He was not stupid, 5-0 had been formed and within months his Dad had been arrested, his Uncle dead, the family business ruined, most of his father's high level personnel in prison too or scattered in the wind. Whatever he felt about it he knew Joe was right, it was only a matter of time before he was the centre of 5-0's attention even after this. He and Danny may have a truce at the moment, but only because of their mutual issues with this guy in front of him. "What have you got in mind?" Adam asked him curiously, wondering where this was going.

"All it'll take to get hold of your Dad is my phone," Joe told him as he backed up and returned to his spot on the bunk. "They've probably already found the number." And other things too, and Joe hated that fact, tried to curb the panic it encouraged in him. He had encrypted the files but had seen first hand Chin's tech genius so he wasn't optimistic that it had taken the guy long to break it.

"You said that already," Adam reminded him. "What else?"

Joe sighed. "I can give them enough bull to have Williams, McGarrett and the others out of your way for years," he told him darkly. "Well, McGarrett, Kelly and Kalakaua anyway," he added. "Williams I have other plans for."

Adam took in the look in his eye and figured out it wasn't a good thing he had in mind for the blonde. "Doing what?" he questioned him, curious again.

"The Yakuza aren't the only people using Hawaii as a stepping-stone into the US and Asia," Joe continued, warming to his subject. "I've got information about routes in and out, smugglers and their networks. I can feed them that, and persuade McGarrett to leave, with me. I have something he wants."

Adam frowned. "Enough to get him to follow your lead around the planet?" he asked him.

Joe nodded, enthused, and the other guy wondered whether he knew he was still under the influence. "I've got enough information to do it. I can get McGarrett out of Hawaii, leaving the others leaderless."

"And ready to be picked off?" Adam asked him. He knew White was angry with Danny, the threats he had spouted to him when he had dropped him off told him that. But he didn't think he had anything against the other two. Adam had met Kono through Kawika; he hadn't thought he wanted to do her damage.

White shrugged. "They might just fade into obscurity again," he replied uncaringly. "I don't really care. You want your Dad; I want Williams, and then McGarrett. All you've got to do is call Williams; I'll give them some bull, and we can both cash in."

Adam watched him thoughtfully for a few moments while he ran possible scenarios through his mind. His father was a killer, he knew that, he'd known that for a long time, and he had thought the only person who was more cold blooded than Hiro could be was Wo Fat. However, he may have been mistaken as he watched White and mused over what he had said – he was sitting in front of him contemplating the murder of a cop and someone he was supposed to work with. The unconcerned way he had spoken about Kelly and Kono being vulnerable surprised and concerned him. "I'll think about it," he told the older man, and got up, taking the few steps to the door. He banged on it with a fist and glanced back at the other guy who was watching him as the door opened.

Joe grinned and nodded, and Adam suppressed a shudder and slipped out of the room, pleased when his bodyguard quickly locked it up again behind him. "Your lawyer's here," the man told him as he handed Adam the key back. "Are you going to tell him about this?"

Adam shook his head. "And neither is anyone else," he said firmly. "Make sure."

The man nodded and followed him up the stairs. He didn't envy Adam, he thought to himself, stuck between his father's shark of a lawyer, Joe White, 5-0 or Wo Fat? He wouldn't want to be in that hard a place.

TBC


	7. Endgame

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> They finally get some information from Joe, and that saying is true: be careful what you wish for ....

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Caution   
> Spoilers for 2.23 and some violence and sexual references as well (and did I mention this is AU?)

Endgame

 

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Danny took the call when he was sitting on the lanai at Steve’s place, starting to relax after a very odd day. They had gone through everything they had found, Chin had collated the huge amount of information White had and they had been about to go through it all again, but their ongoing case got in the way. He wasn’t too annoyed about that one, they had been waiting for the trio of bank robbers to make their move, and Steve had gotten to go all ninja on their asses, shoot a couple and storm a bank, so he was relatively happy. 

Now he had wanted to relax, get a couple of beers in his partner and go with the flow, but his phone started to ring, the tone he had selected for unknown numbers. He frowned, put his beer down and fished the device out of his pocket. The screen definitely said ‘unknown number’ and he shrugged, answered it and pressed it to his ear. “Williams,” he greeted whoever it was. 

“Danny, it’s Adam,” the caller replied and Danny sat up and looked over at Steve seating beside him, drinking his own beer. “Adam, hi,” he replied. “Are you all right? What…?”

“He’s talking,” Adam cut him off. He was standing in his study; staring out of the window towards the sea, phone to his ear. “Get his phone, bring it over.”

“Okay,” Danny agreed. “It’s going to take about twenty minutes.”

Adam nodded. “Just bring it and get here, Danny,” he said firmly and hung up.

He stared at the phone for a moment and sighed before he put it away. He had made his decision, good or bad, and now he had to live with it. 

 

Danny looked over at his partner for a moment before he spoke. “Joe’s talking,” he told him. “Adam wants us to go there with his phone. Do you want to come or…?” he asked.

Steve, who, as soon as he had heard Danny say ‘Adam’ had put down his beer and stared at him. He was going to tell him of course he was going to go, but one look at Danny’s concerned face stopped him from scoffing. He paused for a moment and thought about what he was asking him. Joe was going to be furious, even more so if he turned up, he may tell him them stuff Steve didn’t want to hear, he may say nothing. But the main thing Steve realised Danny was trying to protect him from was being confronted with someone else he had trusted betraying him. 

But he couldn’t let him do this on his own, Danny had done enough of that so he stood and reached out a hand to him. “Come on,” he replied with a tight smile “Where’s the phone? Evidence locker still?”

Danny took his hand in his and let him pull him up to his feet. “Thanks,” he replied, grateful for his presence. “It is.”

“Okay,” Steve replied. He quickly strode back into the house and to where Danny normally left his car keys but was confounded when they weren’t there. He turned to face the other man who was locking the back door and frowned. “Keys?” he asked him. 

Danny kept a straight face and pointed in his vague direction while he quickly went round the place locking up, and grinned when he got to the front door before his partner. At that point he opened the door, pulled said keys from his pocket and jangled them noisily. “Don’t forget to set the alarm!” he said to him, amused, and left him there, jogging to the Camaro. 

Steve grumbled to himself as he joined him after doing as he was told, and found himself usurped to the passenger seat. ”We’ve only got twenty minutes,” he told his grinning partner as he made a show of buckling in. 

Danny laughed. “No problem,” he replied and gunned the engine. He drove is own car (miracle of many miracles!) as if he had stolen it, getting to HQ in plenty of time and reminding his partner that he had, after all, been a street/traffic cop in New Jersey when he had first joined PD. But knowing what Steve was like he kicked him out of the car at the Palace. “Now, don’t stop and don’t talk to strangers, Stephen,” he told him firmly as he leant over and pushed him out of the doorway when Steve opened it. 

The Commander grumbled again but let him push him out. “Sir, yes sir,” he murmured, but jogged quickly up the stairs into the virtually empty offices. His ID badge opened the main door, he waved at Security, and took the internal stairs two at a time to their own offices. He had to use a key to get in, checked he was alone before he went to the evidence safe in Danny’s office and opened it with the combination code (a mixture of his own and Gracie’s birthdays) and grabbed the phone in question. It took him only moments to lock the safe again, get out and relock the main office doors, and he jogged back down the stairs. 

Danny was waiting for him; he had turned the Camaro round and was waiting for him at the foot of the steps, tapping his fingers on the steering wheel. He’d made sure the passenger door was open and that side was against the steps so his partner basically fell into the car again without the ability to protest. 

Again Danny showed him why he had the right to complain about Steve’s driving and even with the detour, there were cruising into Adam’s driveway only a couple of minutes late. “Do you have to drive like you’ve stolen it?” Steve asked Danny as he parked his car next to a black Merc. 

Danny smiled and turned off the engine before he looked at him. “Jealous?” he asked him. What he did want to ask was: did it work? I hope you’re not feeling as nervous as I am, but he declined. 

Steve reached over and squeezed his arm. “Danny,” he murmured, as he studied the house in front of them. “If I haven’t said it before, I need you to know. I really am grateful for all of this, whatever happens.”

Danny nodded and covered his hand with one of his own. “I was scared, no,” he corrected himself. “Petrified that you’d hate me for this,” he admitted. “Joe treats you like a son.”

Steve shook his head firmly and squeezed his arm again. “Joe treats me like a child,” he clarified. “And I’m not.” He studied Danny for a few moments, trying to order his thoughts. “I could never hate you, Danno,” he told him firmly. “The exact opposite in fact,” he added with a slight smile. “Why don’t we get this done, and we’ll talk some more after. Okay?”

Danny nodded and squeezed the hand he covered. “I’d rather do more than talk,” he told him, and quickly pulled the keys out of the ignition and opened the door to get out before Steve could call him on it.

His partner though, held onto his arm in his strong grip and looked at him steadily when Danny looked back over at him. “So do I,” he replied. “But here isn’t the place to discuss it.”

Danny nodded. “Agreed,” he answered. “So lets get this done. Okay?”

Steve let go of him and nodded, and climbed out of the car as well. Danny flicked the remote to lock it and they walked together to the front door of the house to face whatever was in front of them. 

 

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The door opened before Steve could knock and revealed Adam flanked by Chin’s cousin. “We wondered how long it would take you to get out of your car,” Adam said with a small smirk on his face. 

Steve smiled back, surprising himself as he did so, but, after all, Adam had helped them immensely with this, even if they got nothing from Joe. “We were just discussing the best way to storm the place,” he retorted, amused. “Danny wanted to use a bazooka, I thought a few grenades would do.”

Adam lost his smile momentarily before he noticed Danny rolling his eyes, and then realised the SEAL was probably joking. Probably. Possibly. “I’ve procured a tank since you were last here,” he replied and stepped aside to let them both in the house. “And a mine field out back.”

“Good to know,” Danny answered, and made sure he put himself in between Steve and Adam. Even though Adam was trying it was obvious to the Detective he was wary of Steve, and the way the SEAL was looking around them curiously he wasn’t surprised. “How did it go?” he asked the other guy curiously. “Or don’t I want to know?”

The home owner looked away from the Commander who had already forced his way into his home once before and shot one of his staff, to his partner who had at least, knocked before he’d breezed in. “Mister Kai Kelly here,” he explained with a wry smile at Chin’s cousin next to them. “Is a great cook. Let’s just say White has had an uncomfortable day and leave it at that.”

Danny nodded thoughtfully. “Do you think he’s telling the truth?” he asked him. 

Adam shrugged. “That remains to be seen,” he commented. “Did you bring his phone?” he asked. “He said my Dad’s contact details are in there.”

Danny nodded and reached over to his partner, tugging on his sleeve to get his attention. “Phone?” he asked him when Steve frowned at him. The guy nodded and pulled Joe’s device out of one of his many cargo pants’ pockets and passed it over. “Nice house,” he added with a half grin at Adam as he did so.

Adam nodded and took the phone from Danny when he offered it. “I don’t suppose you got to see all of it last time you were here,” he commented pointedly. 

The SEAL had the good grace to look away for a moment, embarrassed. ”I’m not going to apologise for that,” he answered after a few moments and then looked up at him again. “But I am going to thank you for this. You didn’t have to do any of this.” He waved a hand in the air to encompass the whole situation in a very Danny-esque manner. “So, thanks.”

Adam nodded again and glanced over at Danny, taking in his concerned expression. “Your partner is very persuasive,” he explained, and smiled slight at the other guy when Danny turned to face him. “We both want the same things – the truth. To that end…” he added and turned to Kelly. “Can you bring White up to the back room?” he asked. “Take Pete and Keko with you.”

Kai nodded and strode away before Adam turned back to the other two in the lobby with him. “We were careful with the amounts of drug we gave him,” he cautioned the pair. “He managed to fight it, to some extent. If you remain calm and ask the same things, it seems to work better.”

Steve nodded thoughtfully. “SEAL training comes with chemical exposure,” he explained with a wince. 

“Which is why we used a mixture,” Adam admitted. 

Danny spotted his partner’s dark expression and stepped in, laying a hand on his arm before he could say anything and ruin their burgeoning alliance. “If it works and we get something from him then it’s worth it.”

Steve nodded eventually and Danny relaxed just a smidgeon. 

“Shall we?” Adam asked after a moment, and led them through the house to the ‘back room’ when Danny nodded. It turned out to be a small study at the back of the house, and unbeknown to Danny the same one Steve had extricated White from before. This time, the chair was still there, but no Joe, not yet. Steve made a quick decision and turned to Adam and Danny. “Which way is he coming up?” he asked quickly, and studied the room when Adam indicated to the door they had just come through. He spotted a large, ornamental screen the other side of the room and hoofed it across the room to hide behind it just as they could hear people approaching. Steve knew, or thought he knew – that if Joe saw him there straight away he’d remain silent. 

Danny didn’t need to ask him what he was going, he didn’t have the time; the noise behind them made him turn away from Steve to see what was going on. Joe was being brought in, held in between two bodyguards, one of them being Kai Kelly. He looked bedraggled, rough, unshaven, wrinkled, and very, VERY pissed off. 

The moment he set eyes on Danny White pulled out of his captors grip with a surprising burst of energy and charged. Danny though, was not such a push over. He side stepped at the last minute, reached for Joe as he went past, grabbed his arm and used it to shove him into the nearby sofa. “Don’t be stupid, White,” the detective snapped at him as Adam’s guards, after a glare from their boss, caught up. “What are you going to do?”

Joe sorted himself out and sat in the corner of the sofa, glaring at him. “Break your scrawny neck!” the guy snapped back. 

Danny surprised him by laughing quietly and shaking his head. “Better, stronger, cleverer people than you have tried,” he retorted. 

Joe sneered at him and glared at Adam. “You’re being played,” he told him. “You got my phone?”

Adam nodded and showed it to him, but did not hand it over when Joe held out his hand. White’s glare deepened but he acquiesced. “Look under ‘J’ in contacts,” he told him darkly and waited while Adam did so. “He’s listed as ‘Jack’.”

Danny winced; he could just imagine how Steve felt about that. “That is low, Joe, even for you,” he told him as Adam quickly found the right one and called the number. He laid a hand on Danny’s arm while he waited for a reply, squeezing gently with nervousness, but grinned when it was answered. He spoke quickly in Japanese, nodded at Danny, and then let him go and stepped away to talk to his father. 

Danny was pleased for him, he really was, he knew what it felt like to have his own father thousands of miles away, at least he knew where his was. But he turned away and back to Joe quickly, he had his own partner to help now. “What’s Shelburne?” he asked him and stepped closer to him. 

Joe glared at him, but Danny, an expert at reading people, could see some fear in the older man’s expression. So he asked him again. “What, or who, is Shelburne?”

“Fuck you!” Joe spat at him, and looked around for an escape route. 

Danny sighed and took another step closer. “You’re not my type,” he replied. “What is Shelburne?”

Joe could feel it – the urge, again, to tell him everything, and he tried to fight it. It was difficult, very, so he decided to give him something to shut him up. “An op name,” he grumbled quietly, hoping he’d be fooled. “Jack and I made up,” 

Danny frowned – he knew from their research he was lying, but he didn’t confront him with it. “What happened?” he asked him. “What did you do?”

Joe closed his eyes and forced the words out. “Killed Wo Fat’s father,” he snapped and opened his eyes again to glare up at him. “That’s what I did. I killed his father!”

Danny watched him for a moment before he replied. “You killed Wo Fat’s father, and you and Jack McGarrett made up that word to hide it,” he stated. “Is that right?”

Joe nodded, but slowly, as if it was causing him pain, and Danny hoped it did. “Yes,” the SEAL growled. “And Wo Fat killed Jack because of it.”

“He almost killed Steve for it too!” Danny retorted, losing his cool at the continued lies. “He killed Jenna Kaye because of it! The least you could do is tell us the truth!”

“I am!” Joe shouted at him and pushed himself to his feet. “And you have no right to accuse me!”

Danny was going to reply, but Steve stepped out from his hiding space and shook his head at his partner. It took a couple of steps for him to move to Danny’s side, making Joe start in surprise when he saw him. 

“You’re a liar, Joe,” the Commander replied, his tone bitter, almost like the cold, angry man Danny had met almost two years ago. He shook his head. “I trusted you, my Dad trusted you. And you’re still lying.”

Joe stared at him in shock and found he had to sit back down again. This he had not expected, he hadn’t believed him when Danny had told him Steve knew where he was. But to have him standing in front of him, in Adam Noshimuri’s house, shocked the elder SEAL enough that he was scared he was going to cry. “Steve…” he murmured, and stared at him, having no other words. “You…? What…?”

Steve looked down at him, unconsciously standing close to Danny for some support. “I don’t understand why you’re still lying to me,” he told him bleakly. “We went through your files,” he added.

Joe’s shock quickly turned to anger and some concern for what they had found – he knew the team Steve had pulled around him were efficient, effective, and, in an area of his mind that didn’t come out very often – he admitted that he was envious, they would have made a great SEAL team. Apart from Danny’s attitudes. “You went through my place?” he snapped, and stood again. 

Steve was going to step closer and get in his face, but Danny quickly grabbed his arm and kept him back. “We did,” the detective replied, trying to remain calm. “As we would anyone who is a suspect.” As he had hoped the elder SEAL turned away from Steve and glared at him again – the last thing Danny wanted was Joe attacking Steve. “Who is Shelburne?” he asked again. 

Joe stared at him, words fighting for freedom, he really wanted to tell him, but he knew he couldn’t, especially here. 

“Are you keeping it a secret for secret’s sake?” Danny asked, trying another tack. “Are you scared Steve’ll see who you really are if you tell us? That his father died because of you? Because of your lies?” he asked. He kept a tight hold of Steve’s arm and manoeuvred himself slightly in front of him; it was obvious to Danny that Joe wasn’t going to let this carry on for much longer. Which could work in their favour if he could just work him up enough to spill the truth. “Is that it?” he asked. And hoped his partner would let him run with this. “You’re scared Steve will see you as you really are? That you might as well have killed his father? And you’re hiding behind this crap?”

Joe stared at him for long moments, anger burning through him. Williams had came close to some of his reasons; Joe did feel some guilt at Jack McGarrett’s untimely and unseemly manner of death but he wasn’t going to let him have the satisfaction of knowing that. He was still under the influence of Adam’s cocktail and normally he would have simply let the annoying little man spout off in front of him and say nothing. But the panic he was feeling at the increasing need to explain and tell everything made him reckless, and he had to act. 

When the pause stretched into minutes he still waited, and watched, until Danny huffed in frustration and looked away from him to face Steve before he made his move. He launched himself off the sofa (again) and barrelled into Danny’s body, arms around his waist, and shoved him, hard, away from his partner. 

Everyone was surprised at his actions, especially Danny, who swore as he stumbled backwards and ended up on his back on the carpet with Joe on top of him. It took him a moment to recover, didn’t bother trying to pry Joe’s arms from around him, just kneed him in the closest possible area, hard. Joe shouted as Danny’s knee found his groin; let him go which gave the smaller man enough leverage to get out from underneath him. 

Steve was already there; he grabbed one of Joe’s arms, planted his knee in the elder SEAL’s back, and trusted his captured arm up and behind him. He glared over at Danny, holding Joe tightly, and was relieved to see Kai helping his flustered but unhurt partner up off the floor. “Danny?” Steve asked, and turned back to Joe when he nodded to tell him he was okay. 

“You…” Steve started, but Danny quickly walked over and crouched beside them both. 

Joe, head facing Danny, was grimacing, struggling but Steve had him well pinned, and he knew it too. He glared at Danny impotently, cheek buried in the carpet when the Detective crouched beside him. 

“What is Shelburne?” Danny asked him calmly, surprising everyone. “Tell me Joe, I know you need too. Who?”

And before he could fight it, before he could calm down, beat the anger, the drugs, the persuasive tone, Joe answered. Finally. “Kay McGarrett,” he growled. “Doris Kay McGarrett.” *

Steve stared down at his mentor, horror struck, and then pushed down on his arm and back, face an expression of more rage than Danny had ever seen from him. “I’m gonna fucking kill you!” he snarled in his ear, and twisted Joe’s arm even more. 

The guy cried out in pain and Danny, not really knowing whom they were talking about, grabbed Steve and got his attention. “Steve!” he said loudly and laid his hand on his partner’s arms. “He’s not worth it, let him go.”

Steve turned to face him, an expression of horror, hate and fear on his face, one Danny never wanted to see again. “My Mom,” he murmured and let Joe up a small amount. “She…He…My Mom…”

Danny could now understand the expression and he pulled him away from the groaning older man, knowing that Steve in his shock only let him do it. 

Adam, who had taken no notice of what was going on and had gone out of the room for some privacy, hung up from his father and walked back in. To see Danny, arms full of his partner, trying to get him away from White, who was in a groaning heap on the floor. Even as Adam started to go over to them Kai Kelly moved over to White to make sure the guy wasn’t going to stroke out there and then, so he headed towards the detective instead. 

Danny looked up gratefully when Adam slipped his arms under Steve’s arms and helped him to his feet, Danny quickly following. Between them they got the shocked SEAL to a nearby armchair, and Danny perched on the wide arm and embraced him tightly, pulling him close against his chest.

Adam laid a hand on the Detective’s shoulder and looked down at him. “What’s wrong?” he asked him quietly. “Bad news?”

Danny nodded. “Can we stay for a while?” he asked, his worry evident. “I don’t…”

“As long as you need,” the Doc cut him off and slid Joe’s phone back into one of Danny’s pockets. “Keep that safe,” he told him, and left them alone. 

Kelly looked up at him when Adam approached and nodded. “He’s all right,” he assured him, and pointed to White still curled up on the floor. “He’ll sleep it off.”  
Adam nodded thoughtfully. He could pull out a weapon from somewhere and put two slugs in the back of his head, but, even though the two cops in the room weren’t in any position to stop him, he wasn’t a cold-blooded killer. Especially since his Dad had explained to him what Joe had done and why. “Let’s get him back downstairs. He can sleep it off down there.”

Kelly nodded his agreement and between them they got the other man up to his feet. Joe was wobbly, angry, weak, defeated and he barely glanced at the other two in the room, as he was lead out. 

Danny watched them go and turned back to Steve as the door was closed behind the trio. 

 

Steve was leaning against him, eyes open but staring at nothing and it took him a while to realise they were alone. When he did he looked up at Danny, noted their position and didn’t care. “What if he’s not lying now?” he asked quietly. “If she’s still alive?”

“Then we’ll deal with it,” Danny replied firmly. “As with everything else – we’ll deal with it.”

Steve looked up at him and felt a lot more reassured at the determined look on his partner’s face. If Danny was sure that they could deal with it then they could deal with it, that much was certain. 

He studied him for a few moments, all the lines on Danny’s face as he frowned, the deeper blue his eyes were because he was frustrated and angry, the tenseness in his shoulders as he held his partner tightly. All of that concern and worry was for him, all of that wiry strength was concentrated on keeping him safe, and it was a heady feeling. He needed to make a move, he knew it, it was only a matter of time now that Danny would give up on him and move on. Why should he wait forever for a repressed Navy SEAL with control and Daddy – no, scratch that – FAMILY issues? Especially when he had a pretty anthropologist sniffing around him, plus a whole raft of other people that Danny seemed to ignore wanting him. 

Now though, when the whole foundations of his adult life were quickly crumbling around him (and a tiny traitorous part of him was stating this was the most inappropriate time he’d ever be able to pick) Steve needed the love and stability Danny so easily gave him. He just hoped the man would accept it back from him.   
So he looked up, moved an arm from the safe cocoon Danny had created around him and used that hand to gently cup his partner’s cheek in his palm. “Danny,” he murmured when he looked down at him, and moved his hand round to the nape of his partner’s neck.

Danny frowned for a moment before he got with the program and went with him when his partner urged him downwards. When he figured out what that look on Steve’s face meant he paused for a moment to study him and let him pull out, but Steve licked his lips and smiled at him, tugging him down again. 

The kiss was chaste at first, but deepened quickly when they finally got a taste, and soon they were lost in each other. 

 

5050505050505050505050505050

 

Adam made sure White was tucked back into his little room and on the bunk before the room was locked up again and he headed back up the stairs. He had been concentrating on his father on the phone in the lobby outside the study while the other two were questioning the older guy and he was curious at what had put the shocked look on the normally stoic McGarrett’s face. He walked into the study where he had left the other guys only to stop short when he saw them. He found himself waiting until they broke off before he made his presence known, clearing his throat and smiling when the pair of them jumped, startled. Steve glared at him, Danny blushed fetchingly, and Adam walked over to them. 

“I take it you’ve both thoroughly checked each other’s tonsils,” he commented sardonically. “I can get you a room, if you like.”

Danny grinned at him, Adam wasn’t really surprised; the detective seemed to trust him more than his partner did. “We might take you up on that,” he replied, amused. “But not tonight.” He let go of Steve when the taller guy pushed away from him and stood, but the SEAL laid a hand on his shoulder to keep touching him. 

“Where’s Joe?” Steve asked Adam. “What are you going to do with him now?” He was all business; the only indication of his previous activity with Danny was the hand he kept on his shoulder and the closeness of his stance, his hip virtually leaning against Danny’s abs. 

“He’s tucked up, safe and sound, in a bolt hole my Dad built in the basement.” Adam answered him, losing his smile. “It’s quite comfortable, don’t worry,” he added, noting Steve’s hand tightening on Danny’s shoulder. “He’s got to sleep it off, probably overnight. I’ll call you, well, Danny, in the morning.” he added. “You can give me my Dad’s phone number then, okay?”

Steve thought about it and nodded. “Thanks Adam,” he said sincerely. “I don’t…”

Adam waved away his words. “I got to talk to my Dad,” he replied and watched as Danny stood and handed Steve his car keys. He nodded at the Commander and murmured something to him before Steve let him go and walked past Adam, giving him a faint smile as he went, and then out towards the front door. 

Adam watched him go and then turned back to Danny. The guy was watching him steadily, and Adam wondered what he was seeing, what he was thinking about him. But before he could call him on it Danny was talking. “You have no idea what this has done for me, Adam,” he told him as sincerely as his partner. 

Adam smiled. “I don’t know,” he answered, amused again. “I think I got some idea when I saw you sucking the life out of McGarrett’s mouth.”

Danny smiled and nodded but didn’t say anything about that. “Could you do me another favour?” he asked him instead. 

Adam’s eyes widened as he studied him. “What this time?” he asked, suddenly worried. “I’m trying to stay on you’re side of the law, Danny. You’re not making it easy.”

Danny’s smile widened, a flash of brilliance that calmed the other guy. “Can you let your Dad, or anyone you know who has links to Wo Fat that I know what Shelburne is?” he asked him. “Not McGarrett, definitely not him,” he added firmly to clarify. “Just me.”

Adam frowned at him. “That’s a dangerous request, Danny,” he cautioned. “Even I know Wo Fat’s been after that information for a long time.”

Danny nodded. “I know,” he answered him. “I’m hoping it’ll get him out from underneath whatever rock he’s hiding under,” he explained. 

Adam studied him for a few moments before he nodded. It would work, he knew, he also knew a couple of people apart from his father, who could probably get word to Wo Fat. And he knew first hand how effective 5-0 was; his father and uncle’s downfalls were evidence of that. “All right,” he agreed. “But make sure you’re prepared for the consequences, Danny,” he warned. “It won’t be pretty.”

 

5050505050505050505050505050505050

 

Steve was silent on the drive back to his place and Danny didn’t tell him of the request he’d made to Adam, he didn’t want to ruin his introspection either. He didn’t really know what was going through his partner’s mind; Steve had closed down and seemed to be concentrating on driving but Danny wasn’t fooled. So he sat and waited and wasn’t too surprised when the SEAL didn’t get out of the car at the beach house, just stared at the building for a few moments. Danny understood his reluctance; if it were he in the same situation he wouldn’t want to go in either. “Steve?” he called after a couple of minutes and laid a hand on his thigh to get his attention. 

His partner turned to face him and let down his guard. He looked … hollow … as if everything he had fought so hard to gain after losing his mother had been sucked out of him. Danny quickly unbuckled their seatbelts and pulled him close to him so he could hug him again, anything to let him know he wasn’t alone. It was awkward, the car wasn’t the best place of this, but Steve didn’t argue and pressed his face into the warm, welcoming juncture of Danny’s shoulder and neck. He breathed in the faint scent he associated with Danny and relaxed minutely in his presence. 

“It’s all right, Babe,” the detective murmured and gently massaged his scalp with his strong fingers. “Don’t even think for one minute I’m going to let you go off and deal with this on your own,” he added firmly. 

Steve huffed a laugh against his skin. “Wouldn’t dream of it, Danno,” he replied and turned so he could eye the house. “I don’t want to go back in there,” he explained after a pause. “Too many …” Ghosts wasn’t the right word, not anymore. “Too much…” He couldn’t think of the right word, Danny was the one for words, not him, and he gave up with another huff. 

His partner understood, as Steve had known he would, and he nodded slightly. “Okay,” he agreed easily. “I’ll go in and get your stuff, you can stay with me.” His smile was evident in his voice when he continued. “You’ve practically moved into the hotel with me anyway. We might as well make it official. Even your truck is taking up three spaces in the car park.”

Trust Danny to stop him brooding Steve thought wryly to himself as he moved away. “Two spots maybe,” he conceded as he sat back. “Certainly not three.”

“Right,” Danno replied dryly. “Is there any particular colour of tee shirt and cargoes I should get?” he queried. “I had thought you were co-ordinated for days of the week a couple of months ago, but then you wore black pants for five days straight.”

Steve gave him a half-grin, better than nothing, and his amusement touched his eyes, so Danny took that as a win. “I didn’t know you took that much notice of what I covered my ass with, Danno,” he retorted. 

Danny grinned at him and looked him up and down with a leer. “It’s a nice ass,” he replied, amused. “And, I am very comfortable with my masculinity to be able to say that,” he added. “Also,” he continued, using a hand to rub Steve’s thigh. “I have it on good authority my boss won’t mind if I take tomorrow off and prove to you just how much I like your ass.”

That got him a full smile and Steve leant back in the driver’s chair and pulled out his phone. “You’ve got a good boss there,” he told him as he scrolled down for Chin’s number. “I need grey pants, a blue tee and a green over shirt for tomorrow,” he added impishly as Danno got out of the car. 

Any reply the other man gave him was cut off by him shutting the door, far too strongly for Steve’s liking, and Chin answering Steve’s call. “Chin,” he greeted the other detective with a smile as he watched his partner use his key to unlock the house. “Danny and I are taking tomorrow off. You and Kono do the same. If anything comes up the Governor or HPD will call one of us.”

Chin nodded. “Will do, Boss,” he replied, like he was going to argue against a day off. “You want to go spear fishing?” he asked, trying to keep his knowing tone out of his voice. 

“Err … not tomorrow,” Steve replied and hoped he was blushing. “We … um, that is …”

Chin laughed at him, fondly amused. “About time,” he replied. “Enjoy. We’ll see you whenever.”

Steve didn’t reply, he just hung up and waited for Danno. 

 

5050505050505050505050505050505050

 

“This was a very good idea, even if I do say so myself,” Danny murmured some time the next day. They had decided to take full advantage of everything the hotel had to offer on their day playing hooky, and he was sprawled out in a lounger, wearing shorts and plenty of sunscreen, after a massage and a quick dip in the nearby, quiet, lengths pool.

Steve, in virtually the same position next to him, apart from factor 20, and only because Danny had insisted and rubbed it in, very thoroughly, glanced over at him and smiled. “Uh huh,” he agreed, and studied his partner, his lover, as he did so. 

Danny was languid now when he was normally so full of energy, and it was nice seeing him so relaxed. When they had gotten back to the hotel last night he had been full of nervous energy, which Steve had taken advantage of. Their first time had been an exploratory hand job, some frottage and kissing enough to map territory and gain insight. Steve had found a spot just where Danny’s neck met his shoulder that turned him on, that now sported a glorious hickey, he thought smugly, and Danny had found that nibbling on Steve’s nipples made his toes curl and shout out. 

Once they had gathered wits enough to eat Danny had bidden Steve unpack the duffle he had pulled from the house, where the Commander found his partner had discovered and brought along his stash of condoms and lube. They had made use of those after dinner, Danny had indeed worshipped Steve’s ass – he’d never been so thoroughly rimmed on a first night. 

Steve found that Danny was so deliciously tight when he had returned the favour, even though he had showed him Danny wasn’t a novice, and he certainly seemed to like it when Steve pressed deep inside him, enough to wrap his legs around Steve’s waist, clutch his ass and urge him deeper. 

He’d been as amenable this morning when they had woken slowly, a second time in the shower, and Steve had been pleased that Danny had declined when he had offered a turn about. They’d had a slow breakfast, a lazy morning, a light lunch, and after Adam had called, warning them he’d let Joe White go, persuaded his partner into a massage while he went for a swim in the lagoon beyond the hotel. 

Now he watched him and smiled – Danny was relaxed, finally, he was enjoying the sun, and reached out to spread his large hand over Danny’s taut abs, marvelling at the feel of them. Danny looked up at him and then down at his hand, and ended up laughing when his lover’s fingers slipped into his belly button. 

“Are you trying to make me giggle?” the detective asked him, amused. There were areas of his body that were very ticklish that Steve hadn’t found yet, and he wasn’t going to tell him. 

Steve grinned and nodded, and pressed a kiss to his shoulder. “It’s a goal of mine,” he retorted impishly and lightly moved his hand over his partner’s soft skin. “I’m sure I can ask Gracie to help me,” he added, and pressed a kiss to Danny’s nipple as he did so. 

Danny laughed, he at least knew where Steve was most sensitive, and he decided to do something about it. “You can’t gang up on me with Grace,” he told him, and quickly attacked his partner’s waist with his fingers. 

Steve hooted with laughter and tried to push him off but Danny rolled over across him and got to it. 

Neither noticed Joe White watching them horsing around from some distance away. He had gone home when Adam and Kelly had dropped him off, found all his files had gone, and came straight to the hotel. It had taken him a while to find the pair, the hotel was large, but he was surprised to see McGarrett sunbathing and acting out in public. Surprised and dismayed, especially when Steve made a break from his partner and took a running dive into the pool, only to have Danny follow him in, his own dive almost as clean as Steve’s. He shook his head when Steve let himself get caught and be backed in to a corner, and then turned away and left when they started to get hot and heavy again. He didn’t want to go after Danny when Steve was around, after yesterday he knew Steve would protect his friend rather than help him, and he had plans.

Williams would keep, Joe would just have to bide his time and wait for the right moment. “I’m a patient man, Williams,” he murmured to himself as he went back to his car. “Very patient.”

 

tbc

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> * did some surfing and found the name Doris McGarrett, don’t particularly like that one, (sorry if anyone’s called that) and added Kay


	8. Conclusion

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It seems Danny isn't immune to tasers either...

Conclusion 

Danny was a bit concerned, no, a lot concerned, that Steve had seemed to take the news about his mother in his stride. Yes he had avoided his house as much as possible, only going in to check on the mail, get more clothes and make sure squatters hadn’t taken residence, but that seemed to be it. 

Which was not good at all. 

Even when Danny brought the subject up Steve would avoid all talk about it. Some of the distraction tactics he used were very effective the Detective admitted with a private, self-indulgent smile, but they were still unhealthy avoidance techniques all the same. 

Joe White hadn’t been around either for the couple of weeks since. Danny was pleased about that one too. But he also knew, because this was his life now, that the shit would hit the fan spectacularly, soon, and however far he ran, or how low he ducked for cover, he knew he was going to get covered in it. 

He was surprised at Steve’s timing – he was watching Kono teach Grace some more surfing techniques on a small public beach a few days after Rick Peterson had tried to ruin his life and ended up knocking Danny’s world off it’s axis for a few days. His partner strode out of the ocean in nothing but a low-slung pair of board shorts from where he had swum about five miles, and stood in front of Danny, dripping sea water on his feet and blocking his view of Grace. 

“Move, you great goof,” Danny protested from his seated position, and moved his arms to shoo him to the left or right. “I can’t see Grace.”

“You see?” Steve demanded of him as he stepped to the left. “That’s why I don’t want to have anything to do with that woman, especially if she’s my mother.” With that he sat down next to Danny and dragged his hand through his hair, turning his piercing gaze onto Grace. 

Danny frowned and handed him a dry towel from their stash as he thought about what he’d said. He came up with some ideas as he watched him dry his face and then his hair, but had too many options to make a choice. “Okay, you got me,” he admitted. “What’s going through that head of yours?”

Steve huffed and, in a very Danny-like move, waved his hand in Grace and Kono’s direction. “You’re a great father, Danno,” he explained. “You moved to a ‘pineapple infested hell hole’ to be with your child. And you show her how much you love her on a daily basis. My Dad hardly said two friendly words to me in the last twenty years, and my Mom apparently faked her own death to get away.” He shrugged and then raised both hands in the air. “What am I supposed to think about this?” he queried. “That she’s Shelburne and Wo Fat has been chasing after her? Is that what they want me to think? And did my Dad know she was alive? Either way he died for nothing, my Mom…”

Danny nudged him with an elbow and Steve turned to look at him with a frown. “No,” he said firmly to him. “This woman does not deserve you calling her that.” He slipped his arm through the gap between Steve’s and his knees that he had taken to hugging. “Any parent worth that term would never do anything like this to their kids. Never.” He looked back at Grace and Kono and waved at her when Grace waved at him. “I could never do that to Grace,” he told him and turned to face his lover. “And you have no idea how sorry I am that you’ve had to go through this,” he told him sincerely. “If I could take any of this from you…”

Steve shook his head and used their joined arms to pull him closer. “I don’t want you to go through any of this,” he replied. “But I can deal with it if I have you.”  
Danny smiled at him and pressed a kiss to his lover’s chin. “Whatever else has happened with this, you’ve become a lot more verbose,” he told him, fondly amused. “And a bit sappy too.”

Steve smirked. “You’ve rubbed off on me, he answered him. 

Danny laughed quietly. “Yes,” he retorted archly. “I have rubbed off on you, quite often.”

Steve laughed too, Danny had done it again and he was grateful to him because of it – his partner wouldn’t let him brood, wouldn’t let him go off on his own half-cocked. And he loved him for it. 

 

********************************

 

Chin had not been impressed when Danny had told him what he had asked Adam to do, not impressed at all. In fact he had glared at the other detective over the tech table and shook his head. In normal circumstances Danny would have backed away and hidden out in his office but he needed Chin’s help, he wasn’t silly enough to think he could take on Wo Fat on his own. 

So, after Chin’s initial snit and: “You did what? You’ve definitely spent too much time with McGarrett,” he was willing to get to it. Soon enough Danny found himself bugged and tracked to the gunwales. Chin added two extra trackers to the Camaro, just in case the one HPD had added when Danny’s car had been retrofitted after he had bought it was compromised. He had another set of trackers in his shoes, so he made sure he wore those as often as he could, and another one in his watch. Chin had shooed him away from his stuff in the hotel room as Danny dreaded to think exactly how many bugs and trackers he’d planted – the guy had even handed him a ring with a tracker in it somewhere. It was quite a nice ring too, titanium apparently, a simple band that fit his ring finger and he grinned at his friend when he put it on. “Do you think Steve’ll like it?” he asked him. 

Chin nodded. “But he might want to know why you’ve got it,” he commented. 

Danny nodded thoughtfully. “Have you got another one?” he asked him. “Just in case Wo Fat goes after Steve?”

Chin nodded again with a patient smile. Danny knew he had given their boss and his stuff the same treatment after they had gotten him back from Korea, whether the Commander knew about that was another matter. “Just in case,” he added, and handed him another box with a ring in it. Danny checked it over and raised an eyebrow – the ring was the same as his but bigger, the tracker buried in the inside of the band. He looked up at Chin with a knowing smile. “And this one will fit him, just as well as this fits me, won’t it?” he asked him. 

Chin had the good grace to look away for a moment before he looked up and nodded. “Good or bad idea?” he asked him curiously. 

Danny paused to think for a moment and then nodded. “Very good idea,” he agreed, and walked out of his office to Steve’s where he was doing something on his computer (probably Minesweeper, he was scarily good at that) and stood next to him. 

Steve looked up and smiled at him, and then frowned when Danny gave him a black velvet box. “It’s got a tracker in it,” he told him straight away. “If you don’t want to wear it for any other reason. But, if you do...” he suggested, suddenly embarrassed and showed him the ring on his own finger. “If it’s too soon, I’ll understand.”

Steve took the ring from the box and studied it before he slipped it onto his ring finger. It fit perfectly and he studied it again, turning his hand this way and that and he looked up at his partner. Danny was watching him closely and he brightened immensely when Steve grinned at him and nodded. “It’s not too soon,” he assured him and stood. “The tracker is incidental.”

Chin watched with a smile as Steve enfolded Danny in his arms and kissed him, and Danny hugged him and kissed him back as enthusiastically. 

 

*********************************

 

They came for Danny three days later after he had dropped Grace back to her mother’s after school. He was on his way back to the Palace, they’d picked up a case and he’d only gone for a few minutes but he didn’t begrudge the time with his daughter. He had to stop the Camaro at a set of traffic lights, the next thing he knew the windscreen had shattered in front of him, his door was pulled open and something hard, cold and fucking painful was pressed to his neck. He was out cold before the thought of irony could form in his mind: he wasn’t immune to tasers either. 

 

He woke again to find himself in his favourite position – not – tied to a chair, arms behind him, ankles strapped to the legs and he blinked but tried not to move until he figured out what was going on. His head ached; his shoulder hurt like hell and he could feel some stinging cuts on his face, maybe from the windscreen. 

Rather than concentrating on his own hurts he tried to figure out what he could see and hear. He was slumped forward and he could see he still had his shoes on, bonus, but the floor was concrete between them. There was light too, it seemed natural, and he wasn’t sitting in a sunbeam, so he took that as another bonus. He could hear he wasn’t alone either, there was someone not too far away from him breathing, fidgeting every so often by the rustling of clothes, and someone a bit further away who seemed to be pacing. 

He didn’t know how long he had been there but he remembered telling Chin that he wouldn’t be long; Steve and Kono were out on a case so he hoped they were looking for him already. It shouldn’t be too hard – he could feel the tracker ring on his finger, as well as what felt like wire around his wrists, but he didn’t let himself relax – it would only take a second for whoever it was to put a bullet of two in his head. 

He probably should have stayed slumped forward until help arrived to not antagonise the situation, but, never one to run from an argument; Danny lifted his head and looked around him. He needed to know who these people were, the whole idea of this was to get Wo Fat out of hiding, not have to deal with a couple of underlings. But, Danny was hoping, Shelburne meant more to the asshole than that and he wouldn’t trust it to anyone else. 

The first person he saw was the closest to him: tall guy, blond crew cut, gold stud in one small earlobe, muscled body builder type, black jeans, black tee, small snub-nosed Mach 10 held easily in one hand. He could be the advert for Goons-R-Us but Danny wasn’t intimidated by him, Kono could easily kick his ass, Steve would be able to finish him off with his pinky finger and an elastic band, and Chin would nerve pinch him into submission or something equally Zen-like. And Danny? He was going to go with a dick punch to incapacitate, but changed his plan when the guy spoke – his voice was so thin and high pitched he didn’t think he had any dick to punch. 

“You’re boy is awake!” he called over to whoever else was in the room. 

Danny tried hard not to laugh, the guy was carrying an automatic weapon after all, but he was still smirking when he looked around them. 

They seemed to be in some sort of storage shack – not a warehouse at least – with a concrete floor and breezeblock walls, a couple of large windows letting in light. Wo Fat, who had been pacing in front of a partitioned off office about fifteen feet away looked up, saw Danny looking around, and strode forward. 

“About time,” he grumbled, and stood in front of Danny, frowning down at him, studying him for a few moments. 

Danny studied him back – the guy, normally so tidy and well-groomed, was sporting a couple of days of stubble, dressed in simple green shirt and chinos, ratty sneakers on his feet. “No Armani?” Danny asked him. “I’m insulted.”

Wo Fat gave him a sardonic grin. “I’m sorry I didn’t have time to dress up for you, Detective,” he retorted, amused. “I will for your funeral however.”

Danny surprised him by grinning and shaking his head. “By that time you’ll already be in hell,” he retorted. “You’d have been there at least fifty years.”

Wo Fat shook his head and sighed. “Look around you, Williams,” he told him. “Your partner won’t find you here, and once you’ve told me about Shelburne, which you will, you’re of no further use. You know the way this goes, Detective,” he added with what sounded like a tired sigh. “Tell me what I need to know and I’ll pay for your body to be repatriated to New Jersey with full honours.”

Danny was surprised enough to snort with derisive laughter. “That’s supposed to persuade me?” he asked incredulously. “Not much of an incentive. If you think that’s going to work then you’re even crazier than McGarrett, and that’s saying something.” He wondered how long it would take for his team mates and the cavalry to get there, so decided he could probably use some time to delay the inevitable, so … “What is wrong with you?” he demanded. “You waste your life chasing after shadows and a word? How many people have you killed because of one stupid word? How many millions have you spent? How many years? And for what? To end here in some shack somewhere on Hawaii? Is it worth it?”

Wo Fat stepped back and pressed his thumb and forefinger to his nose, eyes closing as he took a moment. “My father was murdered,” he told him grimly. “He didn’t deserve it.”

“Does anyone?” Danny retorted. “I’ve seen plenty of murders, Wo Fat, and no one deserves it. Mokoto didn’t deserve it; Jack McGarrett didn’t deserve it. What gives you the right to decide who lives and dies? Just because of your Dad?” He took a breath. “Do you really think he would have wanted you to waste your life chasing after someone or something that might have killed him?” he demanded, an argument he’d actually had with Steve some months ago. 

“You don’t understand!” Wo Fat snapped back, his calm resolve cracking. “I have to honour my father.”

Danny shook his head and looked down for a moment, hating not being able to use his hands to talk. Instead all he could do was try his bonds and rub his middle finger against the ring on the next one, using it to remind him of what he had. “I’m a father,” he told him unnecessarily; he had no doubts that the guy in front of him knew everything about him. “The last thing I want for my child would be what you’ve done with your life,” he replied. “I just want to know she won’t forget me, that I’m her father. Are you sure your father didn’t want the same from you?”

Wo Fat was silent while he thought about it. Nothing Williams was saying was new to him, he’d had the same argument with himself, with his mother, but he prided himself on his tenacity and calm. He was certainly not going to admit to a brash, loud mouthed American detective with much too much empathy and insight that he was right – his own father would not have been pleased or appreciative of what he had done in his name. So he did what he always had when confronted with things he didn’t want to think about – got back to business. He took some deep breaths to calm, dropped his hand from his face and opened his eyes again. “Enough of this,” he said firmly to the helpless man in front of him. “Tell me what Shelburne is.”

Danny huffed a resigned laugh and shook his head. “I don’t know,” he lied, and wasn’t really surprised when his face exploded in pain as Wo Fat back handed him. 

“Don’t lie to me,” the guy snapped and pulled out a knife from a sheath on his belt, showing it to Danny. “I don’t have a lot of time,” he added, and pressed the blade; about an inch wide, at least eight inches long and very, very sharp; against Danny’s throat, drawing blood. 

“Why?” the cop demanded. “Your goon over there charge by the hour?”

Wrong thing to say, definitely, he thought to himself only a moment late. Wo Fat’s face clouded over in anger and before Danny could prepare himself the criminal had plunged the knife into his thigh, hard, to the hilt. He wasn’t stupidly proud to fight a scream of pain, he let rip, and it hurt like… Even more so when the bastard twisted the knife. “Tell. Me. About. Shelburne.” Wo Fat growled at him, twisting the blade with every word. “Now.” 

Danny looked up at him, tears streaking down his face, and Wo Fat moved closer to hear him. 

Enough so the enraged, agonised man in front of him was in range. Danny spat at him, and before he could pull back in disgust the cop pulled back and head butted him as hard as he could in the temple. “Fuck you,” Danny growled, and watched, his own eyes blurry, his head spinning as Wo Fat toppled away from him, letting go of the knife, and collapsed on the floor. 

Which was when the nameless guard made a move. Danny looked up when the man cocked his gun and pressed the muzzle to his temple. “You finally going to earn your pay, Rent-a-Goon?” he asked him. Mentally he was saying something else – now would be a good time, SuperSEAL, a very good time. 

 

********************************

Chin frowned when he looked up and saw Kono and Steve walk back into the office – he had thought it would be Danny. He checked his watch and looked around the office, wondering whether their haole had sneaked in without him noticing. But no, and he looked up at Steve again. “No Danny?” he asked, trying not to panic. Yet. 

Steve frowned and Kono shook her head. “Car’s not in his space,” she answered. 

“He was picking Gracie up from school and taking her to Rachel’s,” the SEAL commented as he pulled out his phone from one of his many pockets. “How long has he been gone?” he asked, finger hovering over speed dial 2. 

“About an hour,” Chin replied. “He said he wouldn’t be more than half, but I’ve been concentrating on this …” he explained, waving his hand over the tech table. It was running all the information they had gathered on the case, facial recognition included, and Steve knew how deep Chin’s concentration got when he was immersed in it. 

“S’okay,” Steve answered but before he could call Danny and ask him where the hell he was, the device rang in his hand, and Duke Lukela’s name flashed up on the screen. With a frown he quickly answered it. “Duke, what’s up?” he greeted him.

Duke looked at the mess in front of him at the intersection and frowned. “Is Detective Williams with you?” he asked him, dreading an answer. The Camaro registered to the haole was at the lights, a crime scene by all witness accounts and it was obvious McGarrett hadn’t been driving; he wouldn’t be talking to him then. Which lead him to one conclusion. 

“Why?” the Commander asked quickly, his voice hard, worried. “He was supposed to be dropping off his daughter.”

Duke’s frown deepened; there had been no indications a child was with him when Danny had been taken. “He’s been kidnapped, it looks like,” he explained quickly. He told him the location and could hear the Commander ordering his people into action in the background. Then: “What happened?” Steve demanded of him, and Duke could hear him striding quickly, probably to a vehicle.  
“Witnesses state he was in his car at the intersection, waiting on lights,” Duke explained as he watched CSI techs tape off the car. “Someone stopped an SUV next to his, got out and smashed his windshield with something. A witness said they thought he was tasered, then dragged out of the car into the SUV.”

Steve stopped walking, fear hitting him like a punch in the gut. But he tried to pull himself out of it and think – Danny needed him now to be on top form and being a petrified gibbering wreck wasn’t going to help. “Duke, send all CCTV images to us, asap.” he ordered him. “Have you seen what’s in the car? His phone? Shoes? A ring?” he asked. 

When Duke frowned in confusion Steve waited a few moments before he snapped. “Duke! What was left in the car?”

“Let me check,” the officer stated and walked over to the vehicle in question. There was an iPhone in an evidence bag on the passenger seat, the seat covered in glass, but nothing else that he could see, not shoes or a ring. “Just his phone,” he told the SEAL. 

“Thank fuck,” Steve replied and turned back round and jogged into the offices. “Chin!” he called. “They didn’t get his ring! Track it!”

Chin was already loading up the program on the tech table. It came up with a satellite image of the Palace first, two dots in the area Steve knew they were standing in, another two in the same colours – blue and red – outside where they parked their vehicles. Steve had driven his truck in so he had transport while Danny was out, and Chin had been dropped off by Malia so the red one must had been Kono’s. She got that the same time he did and glared at her cousin, but she was far too good a cop to start an argument with him now. 

Chin ignored her as he quickly pressed the table to zoom out. Two silver dots flashed at the intersection Duke as at. “That must be the car and the phone,” Steve spoke, but he couldn’t see another dot. “Where…?”

“Wait,” Chin ordered him, and quickly pulled up the touch keyboard to type an order. The screen quickly panned out some more to show a wider view. There were more silver and blue dots clustered together not far from the Palace. “That’s the hotel,” Kono commented. “We need one on it’s own.”

“Wait,” Chin said again, typed in another order and watched. 

The program seemed to be searching the island for the missing dots, zooming out then back in again, and it took only moments to find two silver ones together. “Got him,” the Lieutenant said, satisfied, and looked up at Steve. “We need back up,”

Steve, ready to go there straight away, knew it, but hated to wait, anything could be happening, whoever had had his partner for maybe an hour. “Find Grace,” he said tersely to the pair of them, and then pressed his phone back to his ear. “Duke, we’ve tracked him,” he told the officer who had been waiting patiently. “We need back up, at Sand Island Rec area, off Sand Island Parkway,” he explained. “There seems to be a small building closer to the sea. Rendezvous at the main car park, Chin’ll send you an aerial photo,” he added, and looked over at Chin. He nodded back but before he did he pointed to a green dot on the map, in Kahala and mouthed ‘Grace’ at him. Steve nodded, relieved, and got back to Duke. “Do it quickly, Duke,” he told him. “We don’t know who’s got him or what they want.”

Duke nodded. “We’ll be there in twenty, McGarrett,” he told him, and meant it, Williams was one of their own after all. He hung up, checked his email for the photo, figured out where it was, and started yelling to his people milling around the junction.

Steve turned back to the two cousins and took a breath. “Vests, as many weapons as possible, downstairs in five,” he ordered, then rushed to his office to do exactly the same. Vest on first, Danno would yell at him if he turned up without it, gun in his chest holster, two more about his person, a couple of knives, some throwing stars but no explosives – they were in a duffle he kept in his own truck, it’s contents a mirror of what he kept in the Camaro. Instead he made sure his ring was on his finger, and checked the screen saver for his phone, a photo of him, Danno and Grace all smooched up together that Kono had taken, and smiled fondly at it. “We’re coming Danno,” he murmured and lightly touched the screen with his finger. “Just hang in there.” With that he put his phone away and headed out to muster with the other two at the vehicles. 

Chin had loaded the trackers onto his iPad and he climbed into shotgun of Steve’s truck, keeping it in front of him to make sure they weren’t going anywhere before they got there. Kono climbed in the back seat with her rifle, and she spent the beginning of the journey checking it, making sure it was loaded, that she had spare ammo. 

Steve drove like the Devil was on their tail, making Chin glad they were all strapped in and he wondered what was going through the man’s mind. 

Kono though, was the one to pose the question. “Who’s taken him?” she asked the two in the seats in front of her. “Why?”

Steve shook his head and blasted through an intersection, lights and sirens blaring a warning to anyone stupid enough to get in his way. “Joe wouldn’t do this,” he said, sure of it. “He’d do something, face to face, not just grab him.”

“You sure?” Kono asked grimly. Yes, Danny hadn’t wanted her mixed up in this but Chin had explained after she had figured out something was going on. She’d had to remind him of how pissed he had been when she had kept Delano and Fryer from him and he’d caved eventually. 

“About this, yes,” Steve replied firmly. “About everything else, not so much.”

Chin shook his head. “It could be someone else,” he told them grimly. “It could be Wo Fat.” 

Steve glanced at him but not for long, he was going 90mph down Kalakaua Avenue after all. “Wo Fat is a psychopath,” he replied, looking back at the road. “He’d kill him in front of me, just…” He paused, his voice cracking. It had been a fear of his before he had started sleeping with Danny, still was a fear that his lover would be used against him, but, however much he had tried, the man had gotten under his skin and demanded more from him rather than fear. 

“Not if he had something Wo Fat wanted,” Chin added and studied their boss for a moment before he continued. Aneurism face was out in full force so Danny obviously hadn’t told him what he’d said to Adam. “Danny asked Adam to make it known he knew what Shelburne was,” he explained. “I thought he’d told you!” he added at the astounded look the Commander gave him. “He wanted to get the asshole out of hiding so we could catch him, and finish this.” 

Steve didn’t say anything; there was nothing to say. Danny would do this to protect him, he knew it, to give Steve some closure and because he was still pissed at Wo Fat about Korea. He was going to have words with his lover and partner over this, so many words. But he had to get him back first, and he coaxed a bit more speed from the big truck as he pushed the vehicle over the bridge onto Sand Island. He just hoped they would be in time. 

 

**************************************

 

Rent-a-gun was just about to pull the trigger and splatter Danny’s brain all over the shack walls and floor when the body at the Detective’s feet groaned. He put the gun down, making the cop breathe in relief, and crouched beside his temporary employer to lay his free hand on his shoulder. “Hey.” he called to called to him and gently shook him. “Hey, you back with us?”

Another groan and Danny swore to himself when Wo Fat moved, put a hand underneath himself and pushed himself up into a sitting position. He had to lean against the legs of the guy behind him while he tried to recover. His head hurt like hell, it felt like his brain had been rattled in his skull, and as he held his head in his hands he could feel blood oozing down the side of his face from his wound. He concentrated on his breathing, trying not to let his anger get away with him, but he knew the Detective had given him a head injury he wasn’t going to get over in a few minutes. But he wasn’t going to let Williams know how much he had hurt him and pulled himself together. He let go of his throbbing head and pressed one hand on Danny’s damaged leg to push himself back up to his feet. He had to lean on the gunman he had rented for this for a few moments but he grinned at Williams’ groan of pain. “Not bad, Detective,” he admitted to him as he looked down at him, spotting the bruise forming on his captive’s lined forehead, well, the two foreheads he could see in front of him. 

Danny still with some bravado left, chuckled evilly. “You look like shit,” he told him. 

Wo Fat looked him up and down, studying him. “You don’t look so good yourself,” he retorted. Danny didn’t, blood pooling from around the knife still buried deep in his thigh, starting to drip onto the concrete floor, he had some scratches on his face and arms from the windshield, another small cut on his forehead, just above his eyebrow from his act of defiance. 

Danny shrugged. “I’m not a clothes horse,” he replied blithely. 

Whether or not he meant it as an insult Wo Fat took it as that and back handed him again. It wasn’t as hard as the first one but still hurt and Danny swore again and blinked a couple of times.   
“I’m not a clothes horse,” Wo Fat grumbled, surprising himself with his poutiness. Normally insults from his victims washed over him, not connecting, but Williams seemed to be different. Especially with his next one. 

“No,” Danny told him. “You’re a coward. You only go after people that are incapacitated, you had to chain up Jenna and Steve before you started on them. You’ve done the same for me. What are you? Scared that we might fight back? That we can hurt you?” He was getting desperate, he could feel the blood flow from his thigh, the last blow to his face hurt like hell and his ears were still ringing, and he didn’t know how long Wo Fat had planned to be here. And he really didn’t want to die here, especially at his hands, not now he finally had something else to hold onto as well as Grace. Where the hell was SuperSEAL when he needed him? 

 

********************************

 

Not very far away. Duke had done them proud, SWAT were pulling up when Steve, Chin and Kono tumbled out of the truck at the rendezvous point. Duke was already there with another two patrol cars, and even as Steve strode over to him another three, all fully loaded, turned up. Steve had ordered them all to approach silently, the shack was a couple of hundred yards from where they were they didn’t want to spook anyone inside with sirens and lights. 

“Duke,” Steve greeted the officer. “Thank you,” he added and waved a hand to the gathering around them. 

“No problem, Commander,” the man in question responded. “Where do you want us?” he asked. 

Steve turned and waved over the SWAT leader, a tall muscled native woman called Lea Aikane, and she jogged over and nodded at the pair of them. “I hear your cute blondie is in trouble, Commander,” she said to Steve. “Where is he?”

Steve indicated to the shack with a finger – they could just see the roof over the sand dunes. “We’ve got a tracker on him,” he explained to them both. “He’s in there, we’ve just arrived so don’t know how many targets there are.”

Lea nodded and studied the land layout. “We can move in under cover of the dunes,” she mused. “Crossing the space in between might be a problem. Depends on how many targets.”

He nodded and turned back to his other teammates. As he had hoped they weren’t just standing around, the pair of them were already scoping out the area, it looked like Kono had his binoculars and was checking out the area with them, and Chin had the heat seeker recorder out. They were both under cover of some scrubby bushes, and even as Steve watched Chin turned and started to jog back over to them. 

“There’s three people inside,” he told them when he got to them and pointed them out to the trio of officers on the screen. “Also another two outside,” he added. “Kono’s got eyes on them.” He pointed to the heat signatures together outside, probably outside the front door. “The SUV might be out the back, out of view.”

Lea took the recorder from him and studied it while she thought. “Kono’ll be able to take them out without a problem,” she told him with a grin. “There’s only four. Why all of us?”

Steve shrugged. “We didn’t know how many before we got here,” he explained. “And we think it might be Wo Fat.”

“The bastard who killed Jameson?” Lea queried. When Steve nodded she handed the recorder back and squared her shoulders. “My team will move in from the sides,” she told him and pointed out the route. “We’ll surround it. Duke, use your people as the perimeter, we don’t want anyone to slip through.”

Steve, normally doing the planning rather than being on the receiving end, was quite used to her style by now and she was pretty good too. “We’ll go in the front,” he agreed. “We’ll breach when Kono’s taken out the two, follow us in,” he told her.

She shook her head. “Door might be locked,” she explained. “Wait for my front man, he’s got the ram, and don’t go in before we’re all in position,” she added, and then turned and jogged back to her own group waiting for her by their truck before he had a chance to argue. Steve sighed, shrugged at Duke, and then rejoined Chin and Kono at the back of the dune. He could see the two door guards, not particularly well defended but they were well armed, and from the hear seeker he could see inside the shack. There were two people standing, it looked like they were close to each other, as if one needed support from the other, and another one seated. It was most likely Danny, at least he was still hot, but there was a spot on the floor beneath him that concerned his partner, it was either pee or blood, and however much he wanted it to be pee, Steve knew it was most likely the other.

Lea and Duke though, were used to this, it had taken a lot of ranting from Danny to get him to realise that, and they got to positions quickly. He, Kono and Chin tooled up and, keeping low, moved from the back of the dune to the front and stayed at the top. It was not a new dune; it had lots of small scrubby grasses on it so it was stable enough to support the three. Kono set up her rifle as they lay down on the lip of the dune, she nodded at Steve when she was done and he quickly and quietly used the radio on his shoulder to contact the other team leaders. “5-0 in position,” he told them, and waited for the others to respond. He could see the SWAT members, under the cover of the steep sides of the dune moving out to flank them, but until the two at the door were neutralised they could go no further. 

“HPD in position,” Duke murmured in Steve’s ear and they just had to wait for the others. Lea was at the front of her team and she settled down, just out of sight of the guards. “SWAT in position,” she said in her radio. 

Steve wasn’t going to wait and he nodded at Kono. “Take them out,” he ordered, and pulled up his binocs to his eyes to watch. They weren’t far away so Kono had put a silencer on the rifle; the two guys didn’t know what hit them. 

She took a calming breath, aimed at one and took the shot. The guy staggered and fell as the high calibre round took him in the chest. The other guy stared at him at him in shock for a moment before he stepped forward to check out what had happened to his colleague, only to receive Kono’s next round in the same sort of placement. 

Steve didn’t wait; he scrambled to his feet activating his radio as he did so. “Targets down, move in!” he snapped. The face of the dune was a bit crumbly, he slid down it to get to the more solid ground the shack was on, and sprinted over the clear ground to it, Chin on his heels. The SWAT personnel swarmed out of their cover, Lea and two others joining Chin and Steve as they got to the walls of the building and pressed themselves against it, while the others spread out around it. Chin and Steve flanked the door, one of the SWAT guys turned up with a battering ram. He waited for the nod, swung it back and then forward to the door. The lock shattered at the force, the door slammed inwards, and Steve leapt in the gap it made, gun up and in front of him, Chin and Lea following quickly behind. “5-0! Freeze!” he yelled and took in the scene, even as he moved further inside. 

As he had surmised Danny was seated, tied to a chair it looked like, another armed man he didn’t recognise staring at the newcomers in shock. And Wo Fat, his nemesis, standing over his partner, glaring at him in impotent fury. 

He had a gun pressed to Danny’s neck, a weapon he had pulled in response to Danny’s taunt of cowardice, and, as soon as the noise of the door startled him he had used it. Now though, as he watched McGarrett and Kelly, three SWAT people and Kalakaua enter and spread out, he knew Williams was the only way he was going to get out of this alive. 

Steve moved closer to the two, checking out his lover as he did so. Danny was awake, a few bruises and cuts on his face, hands behind him, the thing most concerning was the knife hilt sticking out of his thigh. The pool of blood under the wound was quite large but not huge, but it still meant they needed to get this done quickly. “Drop your weapons,” Steve snarled at the pair. “And step away.”

Rent-a-goon wasn’t a stupid man, he saw the futility of taking on this lot, he wasn’t paid enough; he slowly lowered the pistol to the ground and kicked it over towards Lea beside him. She grabbed his rising hand and pulled him out of the way, shoving him towards her personnel and he was quickly shoved out. He spotted the two guys at the door, decided he didn’t want to turn up dead, so he didn’t struggle when he was cuffed, patted down and relieved of his other weapons, and then handed over to HPD.

“Drop it, Wo Fat,” Steve said again, ignoring everything going on around him apart from the murderer in front of him and the gun he held far too close to Danny. 

“Why?” the guy asked him, his voice bleak. “What are you going to do? Finish me off?”

Steve smiled at him; an evil grin that Danny, still and silent, knew normally preceded lots and lots of explosions. “If you want,” he replied, ever so slightly amused. “I was thinking more along the lines of solitary for life, but…” He shrugged. Inside he was panicking, he was not going to let the man in front of him take away another of his loved ones, definitely not Danny. The guy was everything he needed, everything he wanted and he’d just gotten him. But here, now, he had back up, even as they spoke Kono and another SWAT man were making their way, slowly and quietly, behind Wo Fat and Danny, he just had to keep him busy until they were in range. 

Wo Fat wasn’t going to drag this out any longer then necessary. He grabbed Danny’s hair with his free hand, pulled his head back and pressed the gun harder into his throat. “Fuck you,” he snapped and squeezed the trigger.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> one more chapter I think!


	9. Epilogue

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The end!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The last chapter.... yay! Gets a bit sappy at the end though. 
> 
> The title of the previous chapter seemed to cause confusion in some people - I called it 'Conclusion' because Danny and Chin's plan to use Joe White to get Wo Fat out in the open had concluded.

Epilogue

Steve listened to Max explain his findings in silence, letting Kono, standing beside him, ask any questions. “It seems,” Max said calmly, waving his hand over the body in front of him. “That I cannot report decisively which would was the cause of his exsanguination,” he said grimly. “It could have been any of them; the one in the thigh ruptured the femoral artery, the one in the neck severed the spinal cord and jugular vein. The other two gunshot wounds were to the head.”

He was going to continue but Steve raised his hand to stop him and shook his head. “I’ll read the report, Max,” he told him firmly. “Email it over, okay?”

Max nodded and didn’t argue; he understood the problem the Commander was having. “Certainly,” he agreed. 

Steve gave him a small smile in return and turned to his partner for the day. “I need to go,” he told her. “Can you get back to the Palace?”

Kono nodded. “I’ll get a lift,” she assured him and watched him leave before she turned back to Max. 

 

Steve left quickly; he couldn’t be there with that body in front of him, laid out like a filleted fish. He couldn’t believe the man was dead, he had been such a large part of his life for virtually two years, and what the hell was he going to do now? Go back to the office and stare at the paperwork? No. Instead he climbed into his truck and drove to find some resolution. 

 

He walked down the corridor and the closer he got to his target the better he felt. He could hear voices from the room and he smiled at the noise – it was his favourite combination: high pitched nine year old, laughing, calming 36 year old and he opened the door and leant against the door frame, watching for a moment before he walked in. 

Danny and Grace were on the bed in the hospital room, the young girl pressed up against her father’s side while he held an iPad in front of them. She pointed things out to him and he laughed, replied, and, as Steve watched, pressed a kiss to her scalp. 

Before he looked at Steve standing in the doorway. Danny grinned at him and nudged Grace. “Look who’s here,” he told her. 

She looked around him, saw the SEAL, and squealed in delight. “Uncle Steve!” she yelled as she normally did when she was in his vicinity. She scrambled off the bed, avoiding her father’s legs, and ran up to him, arms open for a hug she knew he was always happy to give her. He didn’t disappoint, he caught her easily and swung her up, before pulling her close to his hip and holding her close. “Hey Gracie,” he greeted her, and pressed a kiss to her temple. “Are you all right? What have you been doing?”

“Watching Finding Nemo and then some photos of you, Uncle Chin and Aunt Kono,” she explained guilelessly and wrapped her arms and legs around him. “Danno says you’re a very handsome SuperSEAL,” she added and pressed a kiss to his cheek. 

“Oh really?” he asked her archly and looked over at Danno with a raised eyebrow. The man in question blushed a lovely colour, much better than his pale complexion. “He did, did he? Very handsome?”

“Uh huh,” she agreed. “I think you are too.”

Now Steve was embarrassed but he had never blushed in his life so wasn’t going to start now. “Well that’s very nice of you, Gracie,” he thanked her gratefully. “I think you are the prettiest young lady around too.”

She giggled and Steve looked over her towards her father. It had been a bit touch and go when he had been brought in two days ago, Wo Fat’s knife had nicked a big vein and a nerve, but with surgery the blood loss was stopped. He did have a couple of numb patches on his leg but nothing that should restrict his movement, and Danny was the first to complain that his knee wasn’t one of those numb areas. He was getting much better though, yesterday he was groggy, in pain and felt crappy, today he was obviously feeling much better too. He was dressed in a tee shirt and shorts Steve had brought for him, rather than that flimsy hospital gown he had been in, injured leg bandaged and propped up on a couple of pillows, the rest of him reclining against the raised head of the bed. The small cuts on his face and arms were already healing, and he didn’t look as tired as he had done earlier when Steve was called away. 

That was probably because of his own armful, the SEAL decided and walked over to him. He carefully lowered Grace back down onto the bed’s surface and bent over to kiss Danny’s smiling mouth. It was chaste because of Grace giggling at their side, but he did manage to scoot round and climb onto the bed beside Danny. His partner rolled his eyes, making his daughter laugh again but he moved over anyway to give him some room and leant against him when Steve slipped an arm around his waist and hugged him close. 

Danny understood it though, he thought he was a corpse in the making when Wo Fat had shoved his gun in his throat, the expression on Steve’s face in front of him had shown him he thought the same thing. He hadn’t known what had spurned them all on to action, but the next thing he had known was a storm of weapons-fire, the gun had gone and Wo Fat was bleeding out on the floor. 

 

**Flashback**   
Steve was terrified, more so when he had been on the other end of a phone the other side of the world, this time he would be forced to watch the man he loved more than anything be killed in front of him. But at least now, he could, would be able to do something about it. He glared at the man in front of him, especially his fingers, and breathed a couple of times to steady himself. No way in hell was he going to let this be the end, no way. 

“Fuck you,” Wo Fat snapped at him, which went straight over Steve’s head. It was the squeeze of his fingers that the SEAL was concentrating on. There! And Steve pulled up his gun, didn’t even realise he had shouted: “NO!” which alerted the others. All he cared about was pulling his own trigger, his own bullet leaving his gun, not Wo Fat’s; that the body that jerked when it hit was not Danny’s. 

Virtually the second after he had pulled his own trigger three other weapons spat bullets, and Wo Fat fell away, dropping his own gun and letting go of Danny’s hair as he did so. 

Danny cried out, in fear, pain at the noise, and Steve leapt at him, needing to make sure no one had missed. “Danny!” he said to him, reaching out for him. “Danny?”

The Detective blinked up at him, shock and pain on his face. “Steve?” he managed and pressed his face in his lover’s chest when the man embraced him tightly.

Steve held him, there was nothing else his mind and body would let him do for a few moments until he could breathe him in. Only then could he get back to business.   
He stepped back and looked over at Chin, already crouched down by Wo Fat, checking his pulse, futilely from what Steve could see was left of him. 

The Commander didn’t even need to assist Danny, Kono was already crouching behind him and using her nimble fingers to undo the wire – Lea walked over and laid a hand on Steve’s shoulder to get his attention too. “Duke’s got paramedics outside,” she told him. 

He nodded, and got to work with Kono. It didn’t take them long to release Danno, and Steve and one of the SWAT guys slung him between them, arms over their shoulders, with only a token protest from their rescuee, and got him out of there to the waiting paramedics and ambulance. 

Steve could finally relax when he put his lover on the gurney and stepped out of the way into a corner while the techs quickly checked him over. The SWAT man patted him on the shoulder and left the back, Chin took his place at the step, and they watched as Danny was laid down, his pants cut off and his leg wound exposed. Chin winced and looked over at Steve. “We’ll meet you at the hospital, Steve,” he said to the Commander who nodded and sat back as he shut the doors.   
*********End***********

Now he could relax a little, the reassuring weight of his living, breathing partner, lover, and best friend leaning against his chest. Even as he thought about it Danny covered the hand he had splayed out on his chest over his tee shirt with his own and interlocked their fingers. Danny squeezed his captured fingers and Steve buried his face in his throat for a moment, kissing his skin as he squeezed back. “Love you, Danno,” he murmured against his ear. “Don’t ever do this to me again.” 

Danny huffed a laugh. “One moment, Monkey,” he said to Grace fondly and turned his head, making Steve pull back, and beamed at him. “Love you too, goof,” he told him fondly. “And we’re going to talk about pots and kettles later.”

Steve snorted and slid his free arm around his partner’s waist to tug him back against him. “Looking forward to it,” he retorted and rested his head on Danny’s shoulder when he settled back against him. “So, Gracie, what photos have you got?” he asked the youngster waiting patiently for them. “Or don’t I want to know?”

 

50505050505050505050505050505050505050505050

 

Danny sighed and stretched out on the hammock in Steve’s house a couple of days later. He was nicely warm, dosed up on painkillers, supported by more pillows than he had thought were in the house while Steve pottered around in the house, doing … something. He couldn’t believe it had worked as spectacularly as it had – Wo Fat dead, definitely, Max had met them at the hospital yesterday a few minutes before he was being discharged with confirmation the body in the morgue was him by DNA, dental records and fingerprints, just to make sure. 

It was still somewhat unbelievable for his partner, Danny knew. He could see him moving from relief to worry again – relief that it was over to worry and fear that it wasn’t, that the guy was going to leap out at them again with something else. But it was getting better, Steve was straying more to relief than worry now, he was letting himself relax as well, finally. 

Chin had put a small downer on it all yesterday too, that Danny had virtually forgotten about. Joe White was still around, he hadn’t left the islands, and, since Steve had decided to move back into his house again, it wasn’t too much a stretch of the imagination to realise he knew where they were going to be. 

“I’m not scared of him,” Danny had said to Chin with a huff, which was true. He was not scared of the man, but he was … concerned about that he could do to Steve. They hadn’t heard anything about Kay McGarrett either, which was not conducive to a quiet life either, Danny knew he was curious, concerned about that and she wasn’t even his mother. Allegedly. In his opinion Steve needed to stay very far away from that mysterious woman, if she was his mother or not. As he had told him, and he still believed it fervently, no one who cared the slightest amount about his or her kids would pull a stunt like this. It was like some bad TV plot point where the writers had run out of ideas, and his heart twisted in pain when he realised his lover was going through it. He did want to speak to the woman himself to find out what had possessed her to hurt her children the way she had. Steve had said it himself: her death had ripped their family apart. Danny wanted to know whether she thought it was worth it. 

He shifted in the hammock and looked up to see if his lover was around, he still didn’t like him away from him for any length of time, wherever they went. So he forced his way out of the hammock and limped into the house, using the wooden upright as a support to get up the steps to the porch. “Steve?” he called as he got into the house. “What…?”

His partner was pottering around in the kitchen, humming tunelessly to himself as he wiped up one of the counters, and turned when he heard his voice. He smiled, put down his cloth and walked into the living room to see him. Danny was leaning against the doorframe, and he grinned in relief when Steve jogged over to him and slipped his arms around him. “Right here, Danno,” the SEAL murmured, and hugged him tight. He understood, he really did, how Danny was feeling, he didn’t like being apart either; it had taken a lot to leave him dozing outside and clean the kitchen. “Let’s get to the couch,” he told him after a few moments, and helped him over to the said piece of furniture. Danny had been working there before he had become drowsy, the coffee table in front of it was covered in his paperwork and MacBook, with the paper held down by improvised paperweights so the breeze from outside didn’t ruin the ‘organisation’. 

Before he could help Danny down on the couch though, the doorbell rang, and both jumped slightly, startled at it. They looked at each other, matching concerned frowns marring their faces. “Expecting anyone?” Steve asked his partner, who shook his head. 

Steve nodded and let him go, leaving him leaning against the side of the couch. He picked up the gun that Danny had been using as a paperweight, checked it was fully loaded, and then made his way to the front door, standing to one side of it. “Who is it?” he asked, and waiting for an answer. 

“It’s been a long time since I was here, Steve,” a well-known female voice came through. “But I still didn’t think I’d have to be invited into my own house.”

Steve stared at the closed door in shook before he turned to look at Danny. :It’s my Mom: he mouthed, and Danny quickly nodded and looked around to try and find another weapon for himself. They were both of the same thought – where she was Joe White was too – and Danny didn’t want to be caught out. He reached down the side of the couch to find another gun that Steve had put down there as soon as Grace had left to go home to her mother, just in case he had said to Danny who had just rolled his eyes and taken note of where it was. Now he was pleased it was there, so he pulled it out, checked it the same way as his partner had, leant his weight on the side of the couch and nodded at Steve. He then concentrated on checking both the back and the front, ready if his partner needed the back up. 

Steve took a breath and reached out to open the door, still standing to the side and relatively protected. “Its not your house any more,” he told her as he she appeared in the doorway. “You gave that right up when you ran away.”

She studied him for a moment before replying, dismayed that his welcome was cold. “I didn’t run away,” she retorted, her voice hard. “We decided it was safest if I left.”

Steve frowned at her. “Safest for whom?” he demanded. “And who’s ‘we’?”

Danny answered, his voice terse. “Joe White, from the back,” he warned, and Steve didn’t dare look over to him. The woman, still at the front door looked and sounded like his mother, but it had been a long time and it could be anyone standing at his front door. 

White was standing at the back, glaring at Danny who had raised his weapon when he’d seen him approach from the side. “Wo Fat,” White replied, but didn’t make a move towards the house, he wasn’t stupid and didn’t want to get shot. 

“He’s dead, thanks to Danny,” Steve snapped in reply. “You two can go back to wherever you’ve been cowering for the last twenty years.”

The elder McGarrett shook her head and tried to step inside the house. She frowned at Steve when he stepped in her way; gun held now in both hands, ready to protect both him and Danny from her. “Are you really going shoot your own mother, Steve?” she asked him, her tone disappointed.

Steve shook his head. “You’re not my mother,” he snapped at her and made to shut the door in her face. 

She cursed, Danny looked over to see if Steve was okay, and White made his move. He sprinted into the house while Danny was distracted, trying to be silent, but the detective was quicker than he thought. “Steve!” Danny managed to yell a warning, and White changed his direction from the front door. He barrelled into Danny, shoving him over onto the couch and landing heavily onto his bad leg. Danny yelled in pain, which was cut off when the older SEAL clamped a hand around his throat, cutting off his air. 

Steve slammed the door in the woman’s face, having to shove it, hard, when she tried to force her way in and turned to help his partner. 

Danny wasn’t helpless though, even as Steve made his way over he managed to shove White off him with the strength of his arms and other leg, White still had hold of him and pulled him down with him, but Danny was ready. He landed on his chest, used his good knee to press his weight into the older man’s ribs as he balled his fist and punched him, hard, in the jaw. Steve winced in sympathy, he knew how strong Danny’s punch was, and slowed down a touch when Danny pulled back and punched him again. 

White went with the blows, then used one hand to grab Danny’s wrists, the one still holding his gun, and the other he dug into Danny’s bandaged thigh. Danny yelled in pain again, but fought through it and used his free arm to elbow White in the face, stunning him enough to pull his wrist free and press the muzzle of his gun against White’s temple just above his right eye. “Give me one good reason,” he growled at him. 

White looked up at him and relaxed, moving his hands away from the cop’s leg as he did so. “Him,” he said after a few moments, seeing Steve approach out of the corner of his eye. 

Only to be surprised when Steve laughed humourlessly “Shoot him, Danno,” he told him grimly. “There’s no one here who’ll care.”

Danny didn’t move but White glanced over at the other man standing over them with a frown. Steve was standing close; his hand laid on his partner’s shoulder, his gun held ready in his other hand, aimed in the general direction of White’s own chest. The older SEAL was finally, FINALLY getting it, it seemed. Steve did have a limit to his loyalty, White had gone past that, and the way he wasn’t pulling Danny off him showed White that he had a huge gulf to cover to get it back. But the look on his face told White that he was never going to get it back. “Look, Steve,” he said, defeated. “I really did all of this to protect you,” he tried to explain. “You and Mary were in danger, your Dad…”

Steve shook his head and cut him off. “I don’t want to hear it,” he told him grimly. “If you want to protect me you need to take that woman and stay away,” he snapped and moved his hand from Danny’s shoulder to under his arm. He helped Danny up from the floor to sit on the nearby couch, spotting the telltale red marks on his bandaged leg and frowned in anger. White was moving, pleased that he could breathe properly, but was surprised again when he was slammed back down against the floor. 

Steve this time, glared at him furiously, foot on his chest, gun aimed at him again. “I mean it,” he snapped. “You ruined my first family, I’m not going to let you ruin my second. Come close to me, Danny, Grace or the Cousins ever again, I’ll kill you where you stand. Understand?” he demanded. When White didn’t reply he pressed harder with his foot. “Do you understand?”

Joe nodded. “Yes,” he growled. “But what about your mother?”

Steve stepped back and shook his head. “My mother died twenty years ago,” he told him and moved back towards his partner. “Now, get out of my house, and you and that woman get off my property.”

He stood back and watched as White pulled himself up off the floor, making sure he was in between the older man and his partner, much to Danny’s annoyance. The pair of 5-0 officers remained silent though as White made his way out to the front door, and Steve followed him, just to make sure he actually left. He then shut and dead bolted the door after him and watched through the window as White gathered up the woman who had been standing on the drive, waiting for something. She gave Steve a look that he had always been worried about when he was a kid; pained disappointment; but it didn’t have the same affect now. Steve just watched as White slipped an arm around her waist and walked her away from the house. He waited until they had disappeared, then got into a car parked on the road at the head of the drive. Joe turned it round at the head of the drive and drove it away, Steve made sure that he could see both of them in it before the turned back to Danny. 

The blond was watching him, a frown of worry on his face, compounded in no small part by the renewed pain in his leg, and his partner quickly jogged over to him. “Are you all right?” he asked him quickly. “Do you need an ER?”

Danny shrugged unhelpfully. “He probably just broke a couple of stitches,” he replied grimly. “What about you? Are you alright?”

Steve knew what he was asking and he paused for a moment before he answered. “I’ve got you,” he told him and cupped his cheek with one large, strong hand. “I’ll be fine.”

Danny’s frown faded into a smile and he turned his face into Steve’s palm to kiss it. “Sap,” he complained fondly. “But the feeling’s mutual.”

“Good,” Steve replied as fondly, and moved to kiss his mouth. “Now,” he added when they broke off. “Do you want me to take you to a hospital? Or do you want me to stitch back up?” he asked, indicating to his red leg with a hand. Danny gave him a flat look, which was why Steve found himself back in the hospital again; watching while his partner was being patched up. Again. 

 

****************************************

He hoped that today was the last he would see of White and whoever that woman was. Even if she was his mother he really didn’t want anything to do with her, he didn’t think Mary did either, not if their last conversation was anything to go by. He had trusted White with his own life, been nothing but honest with him and expected the same in return, only to have that thrown back in his face. 

Danny though … Danny had put himself out there for him, to help him, to finish this off, for him, to make him fell better, stronger, some closure so he could finish one chapter of his life and start another. And what a chapter it was going to be, he thought to himself as he held onto Danny’s hand as his partner squeezed it. He had a great team, a family, and the best partner, best friend and lover he had ever known and ever wanted. He looked at Danny on the treatment bed, lying still while a nurse quickly and expertly sewed up his leg wound, and stood over him. “I love you,” he murmured in his ear and slid his free arm around his broad shoulders. “Thank you, for all of this, Danno,” he said to him sincerely. “You have no idea how much this all means to me.”

Danny smiled at him and lifted his captured hand, letting the ring on Steve’s finger capture the light. “Any time,” he assured him. “And yeah, I do know.”

Steve looked down at his ring finger intertwined with Danny’s for a moment before he spoke again. “Shall we make if official?” he asked him and looked up at him hopefully. “We don’t have to do it here, we can go to a state where we can get it done properly.”

Danny frowned. “It?” he questioned, and Steve could see the beginning of a rant forming. “What is ‘it’? Because if you’re proposing to me, McGarrett, you’re doing a pisspoor job of it.” He turned to the nurse, Elaine her name badge read, who was openly grinning at them both. “Would you accept that?” he asked her, his eyes twinkling in amusement. “If your man asked you like that?”

She smiled and looked them both up and down before she replied. “He’s a guy,” she replied with a shrug. “And a sailor as well. At least he’s asking and not just taking you to a chapel somewhere as a surprise.”

Steve mused thoughtfully and nodded. “That’s a good idea,” he agreed and grinned at Danno’s splutterings. “Or I could always get the Captain at Hickham, or of the Enterprise when she’s next in port to do it. I know them both, neither would mind.”

Danny couldn’t help it, he grinned at him, highly amused. “Of course you do,” he said dryly and then laughed at him. “Of course I will, you goof,” he answered him. “Who else is strong enough to deal with your brand of crazy?”

Steve laughed too and kissed him again. “Danny and Grace McGarrett,” he said thoughtfully. “I like the sound of that.”

“Oh no,” Danny started again, free hand moving around in his agitation. “Steven Williams sounds much better, much, much better. You must be on another planet if you think I’m gonna go with McGarrett, completely out of the galaxy, Babe…”

Steve stood still and watched him fondly as he was off and wondered for the nth time, how he got so lucky in his life to have this man in it, filling all of his empty spaces. So very lucky. 

 

End


End file.
